JEANNE D'ARC 







JEANNE THE MAID 



JEANNE D'ARC 

The Maid of France 

BY 

MARY ROGERS BANGS 



** The miracle of this girPs life is best honored 
By the simple truth. ' ' — Sainte-Beuve, 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 







c-^« 



^"^ 



COPYRIGHT, 19IO, BY MARY ROGERS BANGS 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

Published October jqjo 



©CI.A2?5<.93 



TO 
L. F. B. 



NOTE 

Grateful acknowledgment is due the Hon. Francis C. Lowell 
for his courtesy in allowing the use of three maps from his Joan 
of Arc, 



CONTENTS 



/. Domremy ^ 



21 



78 
99 



//. The Vision 

III. Vaucouleurs 34 

IV. France 45 ' 
V, Chinon ey 

VI. Poitiers 58 

VII. Tours 
VIII Blois 

IX. Orleans 

X. St. loup and the Augustins 108 

XI. The Eighth of May iiq 

XII. loches and Selles \X2 

XIII. Jargeau to Patay 146 

XIV. Gien 161 
XV. Champagne lyo 

XVI. Reims i32 

XVII. lie de France 102 

XVIII, Paris 204 



X CONTENTS 

XIX. The Truce 217 

XX. Compiegne ^37 

XXL Captivity ^52 

XXIL Rouen ^^^ 

XXIIL The Public Hearings 276 

XXIV, The Private Hearings 297 

XXV. The Articles 3^5 

XXVL Recantation 329 

XXVIL Victory 343 



JEANNE D'ARC 



JEANNE D'ARC 



DOMREMY 

JEANNE D'ARC was born at Domremy, in the 
valley of the Meuse, on January 6, 141 2. At 
that season clouds lean sullenly against the 
Vosges hills, or drive through the valleys paying 
their toll of snow and sleet, rivers are rimed with 
frost, and uplands show their vesture of mean white 
soil through the stubble where harvests have been 
gathered ; but in spring the country lays aside its 
austerity, and wakes to a gentle and benignant beauty. 
Domremy was in the ancient villenie of Vaucouleurs, 
** the valley of colors," a name prettily worn when hill 
and meadow smile back at the summer sun. Blue- 
bells, white plumes of reine des pris^ homely butter- 
and-eggs, flowers rosy-pink and yellow and blue, deli- 
cately embroider the vivid green of the valley ; fairy 
webs of Queen Anne's lace are spread in the mead- 
ows ; reeds whisper by the river, feathery poplars and 
willows dip to its waters. With the autumn rains, 
brooks rush down from the hills and the Meuse over- 



4 JEANNE D'ARC 

flows in shallow lagoons ; but in summer it withdraws 
among grassy islands, and lies like an interlacing 
chain of silver flung down in the bright meadows. 
Gray red-roofed villages straggle along the highroad, 
at the foot of wooded hills that join hands to shut 
out the world ; in the upland meadows squares of cul- 
tivated fields and vineyards stretch up to the forests ; 
while by the river the most famous hay in France is 
cut, and there is pasturage for great herds of cattle, 
the chief wealth of the valley. 

The picture has changed but little in five hundred 
years. Domremy still counts its forty or fifty houses, 
and in the parish church dedicated to Remi, the pa- 
tron saint, Jeanne was baptized at the old stone font 
in the chapel of St. John. It was a custom of the 
country to turn names into some caressing diminu- 
tive — Jacquot, Pierrelot, Guillemette, Zabillet — 
and she was christened Jeannette, or Jehannette, in 
the old spelling. Jeannette Thiesselin, wife of a clerk 
in the market town of Neufch^teau, made the re- 
sponses, and there were four other godmothers and 
four godfathers, for Jacques d'Arc was a village 
magnate. At one time he was doyetiy a kind of ser- 
geant, who collected taxes, commanded the watch, 
inspected wine and provisions ; and more than once, 
as an honest man, he had stood for the town on a 
bond or in a case at law. Early in the century he 
had come to Domremy from Ceffonds in Cham- 



DOMREMY 5 

pagne, and Isabeau Rom6e, his wife, was born at 
Vouthon, a village across the hills to the west in the 
duchy of Bar. Among her people were a carpenter 
and a tiler, a brother and a nephew were in the 
church. There must have been a tradition of piety 
in the family, for the surname Romie was given to 
those who had made some famous pilgrimage, per- 
haps as far as Rome ; and Isabeau was a devout and 
energetic woman, with the will for holy journeyings, 
even if she herself had never taken the staff and 
shells. Five children were born to Jacques and 
Isabeau : Jacquemin and Jean, Catherine, who died 
soon after her early marriage, Jeanne, and Pierre. 

The stone and plaster cottage of Jacques d'Arc 
was separated from the church only by the graveyard, 
and his little plot of ground which was both garden 
and orchard. It was more splendid than many of its 
neighbors, for it had three or four rooms, and the cattle 
were not stabled under the roof. Near the entrance 
the inevitable great manure-heap was buttressed up 
for spring farming, and wood was stacked ready for 
fireplace and oven. In the living-room, to the left of 
the doorway, the low ceiling is crossed by oak dark 
with age, and by the great fireplace in the corner the 
lantern might be hung on a projecting beam, when 
daylight had faded from the one window. Here the 
father and mother had their cupboard bed, a few 
stools and benches stood about, the table was perhaps 



6 JEANNE D'ARC 

only a board laid on trestles, copper and pewter shone 
on the dresser, a single chest held the housewife's 
treasures, — a piece of cloth for family garments, some 
kerchiefs, buttons and pins, sheets for the feather- 
beds. The children slept in two little rooms at the 
back, Jeanne's on the side toward the church, where 
the eaves sloped low. In spring the blossoming or- 
chard made her a bower ; in bleak winter, or when the 
garden hummed with life, the church bells which she 
loved so much filled the room with overflowing mel- 
ody, and from her tiny window she might, perhaps, 
see the sacred light on the altar. 

Jacques d'Arc was a rich man, as riches went in 
Domremy, with his cottage, and his bit of farmland on 
the hills which gave him right in the common pas- 
turage by the river, where the village herd was tended 
by each household in turn. He had cattle and pigs 
and sheep ; in the garden, beehives were stored with 
meadow honey ; geese and ducks paddled about in the 
Brook of the Three Fountains, which flowed by the 
door, or were led by the children down to the sedgy 
river. There was work for all in the household, and 
as Jeannette grew to girlhood, she took the sheep up 
toward the great forest, or helped her brothers with 
the cattle in the meadows ; in spring she followed 
the plough, and in days when the valley glowed in 
its bright autumn dress, she took her sickle with the 
others to the harvest fields. When she grew older, 



DOMREMY 7 

she helped her mother in the house ; and after cook- 
ing and scouring were done, their fingers must have 
been busy with spinning and sewing for that family 
of seven. Yet there was time for her to sing and 
dance with the other children, and run races in the 
meadows ; she loved to gather flowers for the altars 
or burn a candle there when she could ; and as the 
Angelus rang out oyer the fields, she snatched her 
moment for prayer.J^he was a healthy, happy, lov- 
able little girl, and through the mist of centuries her 
image shines clear, illumined by her own words and 
the testimony of her neighbors, which, as if by a 
miracle, have come down to us, until we know the 
story of that childhood as well as if it had been writ- 
ten from day to day to show forth the strength of 
simplicity and holiness. Isabeau Romee taught her 
all her little store of learning : the Creed and Ave and 
Pater NosteVy spinning and sewing and household 
craft ; while wood and meadow, forest flowers and 
rushes by the river, bells summoning the soul to 
think of God, and the beloved saints from their 
altars, all had a message for that responsive heart. 
She herself has said : " I learned well to believe, 
and have been brought up well and duly to do what 
a good child ought to do." 

j The Hundred Years' War was now dragging on to 
its last quarter. France had lost the flower of her 
chivalry at Agincourt, the battle of Verneuil had 



8 JEANNE D'ARC 

broken her spirit, while impetus given the fortunes 
of England by the wisdom and bravery of Henry V 
had not yet been dissipated by those who ruled for 
his infant son. In 1420 Isabeau of Bavaria, wife of 
the mad Charles VI, made the king a party to the 
Treaty of Troyes, which set aside her son Charles, 
whom she hated, and betrayed the country to Eng- 
land by marrying his sister, Madame Catherine, to 
Henry and assuring the succession to their children. 
In 1422 Charles VI and Henry died within two 
months of each other, but neither Charles the Dau- 
phin nor his nephew, the infant son of Henry and 
Catherine, had been crowned king. What patriotism 
there was looked to Charles as the rightful heir, and 
waited for his due crowning at Reims, where kings 
of France had taken oath for a thousand years. If 
he won this race for a crown, France would still be 
France ; if the Regent Bedford succeeded in setting 
Henry upon the throne, it would become but a great 
province of England. And always the weakness and 
vacillation of Charles, and the long standing feud of 
the princely houses of Orleans and Burgundy, fought 
England's battles better than her armies could. 
Philip the Bold of Burgundy and Louis of Orleans, 
uncle and brother of the mad King Charles, had been 
estranged by the drift of their ambitions. The bril- 
liant, volatile Louis was loyal to France, though he 
might squander her war-chest on his pleasures; while 



DOMREMY 9 

Philip, politic, able, miserly, must lean ever a little 
to England by reason of the trade affiliations of his 
great provinces of the Low Countries, — Flanders 
and Hainault, Brabant and Holland. Philip died in 
1404, and Jean sans Peur took up his father's quarrel 
with a bitter relish, for he and his cousin Louis were 
natural enemies by temperament and inheritance. 
He tried to cut even Paris from beneath Louis's feet, 
— his best weapon that he asked the burghers for 
no money, while Louis, with no other bankers, must 
squeeze them dry. In an evil day for France, he made 
false overtures of friendship to Louis. They heard 
mass and took the Sacrament together; but in three 
days Louis was assassinated in the streets of Paris, 
and Jean had fled, only to return with armed com- 
panies and confess his crime. Then the Comte 
d'Armagnac, a terrible Gascon, who had come up 
from the south and married his daughter to the 
young Charles d'Orleans, captured at Agincourt, 
took up the royal quarrel and fought so fiercely that 
he gave his name to the whole nationalist party, 
with which the dauphin was identified; while Isa- 
beau swung the mad king over to Burgundy, the 
better to intrigue with England against her son. In 
1419 there was another fateful reconciliation, at the 
Bridge of Montereau, when at the moment of meet- 
ing Jean sans Peur paid the price of his treachery, 
and was cut down by an old servant of Louis before 



lo JEANNE D'ARC 

the eyes of the dauphin, — many believed at his in- 
stigation. Philip the Good of Burgundy made haste 
to avenge his father by seizing Paris and killing Ar- 
magnac and his followers, while the dauphin fled for 
his life to the provinces south of the Loire. Then 
came Isabeau's Treaty of Troyes, the death of the two 
kings, and now practically all France north of the 
Loire was in the hands of England and Burgundy. 

The country was also harassed and torn by inces- 
sant fighting among the lesser nobles, who sometimes 
combined against the common enemy, then drifted 
apart to wreak a personal spite ; while in all this 
turmoil and bloodshed, the soldiers of fortune, Gas- 
con or Breton, Spaniard or Italian, found their profit, 
and rode up and down the kingdom with their com- 
panies, fighting for the man who could pay them, or 
getting what they could from the wretched people. 
The country was so broken into warring districts 
that France had become but the shadow of a great 
name. " The King of France sleeps ; I count the 
others as nothing," was the taunt of the Sultan of 
Egypt, when the King of Cyprus threatened him 
with the vengeance of Christendom ; and he swept 
the king and twenty thousand Christians into cap- 
tivity. While at home, Alain Ch artier, the dauphin's 
poet-secretary, had said that "all France was as the 
sea, where every one hath as much sovereignty as he 
hath strength." 



DOMREMY II 

The villenie of Vaucouleurs peered out from the 
old province of Champagne as if to keep watch upon 
the Meuse ; and cutting in two the duchy of Bar, 
spread out in the valley from Domremy to the stout 
walled town of Vaucouleurs itself, some thirteen miles 
to the north. This tiny district, of which the King 
of France was direct feudal lord, was indeed like an 
island in a hostile sea. Across the Meuse was Lor- 
raine, whose duke hated France ; once, when his town 
of Neufchateau appealed to the king, he had ridden 
through the streets trailing the royal pennon at his 
horse's tail. Bar, to the south and west, wavered in 
its allegiance ; and Champagne was overrun with hos- 
tile bands, fighting for Burgundy or England, or the 
dauphin, or against one another, as occasion offered. 
North were the Low Countries, great provinces of 
Burgundy ; and beyond Bar and Champagne was Bur- 
gundy itself, fighting out its blood feud with the 
royal house of France, an ally of England or not as 
best served its own interest. Vaucouleurs lay in the 
very jaws of an enemy which at any moment might 
swallow it up ; but it was a poor morsel for Bur- 
gundy's hungry throat now when all France might 
be carved to his taste; and with poverty for their 
sufficient protection, the peasants tilled their fields, 
made their wine, and tended their cattle in compara- 
tive peace. The district was so isolated by leagues 
of hostile country, that men spoke of " going into 



12 JEANNE D'ARC 

France " as if it were an alien place ; yet the valley- 
was a hotbed of loyalty, and even the children had 
their quarrel for the liege lord. Boys from the twin 
villages of Domremy and Greux went to school across 
the river at Maxey, which was Burgundian, and the 
rival camps had many a fight for the honor of duke 
and dauphin, when victory did not perch always on the 
banners of France. ** I saw the Domremy children, 
who had fought with those of Maxey," said Jeanne, 
"coming back many times wounded and bleeding." 

Above the villages a forest surged over the tops 
of the hills, which had been a mighty hunting-ground 
in the dim past when barbarians had held their own 
against the power of Rome. King's Forest then, the 
peasants called it now the Bozs ChesnUy or Ancient 
Wood, and told stories by the winter fire of wolves 
and wild boars, or whispered and nodded about "la- 
dies called fairies," who danced in the forest on moon- 
light nights. On Thursdays, especially, they might 
be seen. At the edge of the wood, a half league 
above Domremy by way of a lonely road, was a great 
beech, which the villagers called the *^ beau May^' 
the tree of ^Hes dameSy' the "fairies* tree." "In 
spring it is as lovely as a lily," said an old man; "its 
leaves and branches sweep the ground." All the 
beauty of the ample valley lay at its feet: bright 
fields of grain, clustering cottages, the meadows and 
wandering river, and beyond, more hills with villages 



DOMREMY 13' 

nestling in their arms and belfries pointing to heaven. 
Below, the road marched southward between its 
plumy poplars, past the gray old chateau of Bourle- 
mont sitting on the knee of a wooded hill, to Neuf- 
chateau and the cross-roads where the Oak of the 
Partisans bore grisly fruit of border quarrels. But 
the "fair May" stepped from the forest like a gra- 
cious woman bent on giving pleasure, and offered a 
pretty posy of fairy lore to those who loved her. Yet 
some said it was quite thirty years since a fairy had 
been seen at Domremy; and to drive away ^^ les 
dames'* the ^z/^*/ stopped here and read the Gospel 
of St. John each year on the Eve of the Ascension, 
when a procession with the Cross at its head is made 
through the fields, and now " for their sins, they come 
no more." Poor legendary ladies ! they were banished 
from their playground ; but the children lived on the 
edge of a fairy ring that might be peopled at any mo- 
ment, and old stories lingered for those who had ears 
to hear. Jeannette Thiesselin, who had answered for 
Jeanne at the font, had heard read in a romance that 
Pierre Granier, lord of Bourlemont, had made tryst 
with " a lady called F^e " under the boughs of the 
fairies' tree ; and Jeannette, the mayor's wife, told 
Jeanne, as a godmother might, that she herself had 
seen " les dames'^ " Whether it be true or not, I do 
not know," said Jeanne. "As for me, I never saw 
them that I know of." 



14 JEANNE D'ARC 

On Laetare Sunday, which falls in mid-Lent, the 
villagers went up into the hills to drink from certain 
springs whose waters on that day might cure fevers 
and other ills. They called the day Fountain Sunday ; 
and at Domremy, where it was said " they never lie, 
seldom die," they drank from the Fountain of the 
Thornbush, which lay at the bottom of a steep little 
path not far from the fairies* tree. A few years 
before, Pierre of Bourlemont and his wife Beatrix, 
who was "from France," had "made their fountains " 
with the villagers ; but they had died when Jeanne 
was in the cradle, and the heir, a niece, had married 
and lived at Nancy in Lorraine. Pierre and Beatrix 
often used to go up to the fairies' tree with the chil- 
dren, and on Fountain Sunday joined in the little feast 
of eggs and wine, nuts, and a special kind of small 
cake, which was eaten there before they drank of the 
Fountain of the Thornbush. Then, as the afternoon 
shadows crept up the valley, and the wooded hill of 
Bourlemont showed as brightly blue as the sea or the 
sky above, gentry and sober-clad peasants footed it 
gayly around the "fair May" and sang roundels and 
catches under its branches. The villagers still " made 
their fountains " as in the old times ; and in summer 
days many little feasts were had under the fairies* 
tree, when garlands were woven for the branches 
and a "man of the May" was made with leaves and 
boughs. 



DOMREMY 15 

Jeanne came with the other children, "carrying 
her cake," said one, although, as she remembered, she 
"sang there more than danced." But sometimes she 
slipped away and bore her garland to the altar of Our 
Lady of Domremy. " Often when we were all at play, 
Jeannette would retire alone to talk with God," said 
Jean Waterin, who often followed with her at her 
father's plough, and went with her when the children 
set out for the meadows and pastures. And he and 
the others laughed at her for her piety. But we 
must believe that even as a child the spell of her per- 
sonality fell on those about her. She was good, she 
was gay, she was tender-hearted and keen-witted ; 
and she had an irresistible power of drawing hearts 
to her in a sort of loving wonder of obedience. 
Thirty years later, the peasants, had only gentle 
memories of the child with whom they played and 
worked and said their prayers. Simonin Mousnier, 
who grew up with her, remembered that she liked 
to visit the sick. " I know it of a surety ; for in my 
childhood I fell ill, and it was she who nursed me." 
Sometimes of an evening, she took her distaff over 
to the cottage of neighbor Jacquier for an hour's 
talk with his little daughter, and she was " gossip " 
of Isabellette, who said '* she was never seen idling 
in the roads, but was more often in church at prayer." 
Mengette lived next door, and ran in and out day 
or night to spin and sew with Jeannette ; sometimes 



i6 JEANNE D'ARC 

they polished the copper and pewter together and 
looked after the baking in the great oven, or perhaps 
they helped their mothers beat out the family wash 
down by the river. With Mengette, too, she made 
her first Communion at the parish church ; but even 
Mengette sometimes told her she was "too pious." 
Gentle Hauviette was three years younger, and she 
was best loved of all. " Many 's the time," says Hau- 
viette, ** I went to her father's and slept with her out 
of fondness for her," which goes to show that the 
ways of little girls have not changed much in five 
hundred years. 

On the hill path beyond Greux, the Oratory of 
Our Lady of Bermont was buried deep in the forest, 
with a single outlook toward the river, and nearby 
was the Well of St. Thibault, where Greux made its 
fountains. In the chapel is an image of the Virgin, 
carved in oak and painted ; in her right hand is a 
sceptre, and she bears the Infant Jesus, Who holds 
a bird. On a Saturday, which is sacred to the Virgin, 
Jeanne often made a little pilgrimage to this shrine. 
Perhaps her sister Catherine or the other children 
came with her, and they brought precious candles 
bought with their tiny savings to burn on the altar, 
and gathered flowers as they came which should 
make the holy place as fragrant as the forest at its 
door. Jeanne was sometimes saying her prayers to 
Our Lady of Bermont when her mother thought she 



DOMREMY 17 

was at work in the fields ; and always she loved to go 
to mass, and hear the church bells ring through the 
valley. "When I forgot to ring for service, Jeanne 
scolded me," — the bell-ringer tells with some relish of 
his scolding. " She said I had done wrong. Then she 
promised me some of the wool of her flock if I would 
ring more diligently." Now and later, she knew how to 
win her way. The sexton was also a cloth-merchant, 
and it was like her to coax him with her useful gift 
after she had brought him to book for his negligence. 
On the festival of St. Remi, when the cur^ 
would tell again of the mystic crowning of French 
kings, Jeanne must have thrilled to the story until 
it seemed to her that God Himself was Suzerain 
of France ; as she afterwards said, kings were but 
" lieutenants of their Lord the King of Heaven," and 
the crown **no goldsmith on earth could fashion." 
Nearly a thousand years before, Remi, a wise and 
powerful bishop of Reims, had dared write to the pagan 
boy Clovis when he became king : "Amuse yourself 
with the young, but take counsel with the old ; and 
if you wish to reign, prove yourself worthy." In a 
later year, when Clovis and three thousand of his 
warriors were baptized at Reims, and France came 
to its birth as a Christian nation, St. Remi, at the 
head of that great multitude, led the king through 
the streets in their gala dress. " Is it the kingdom of 
heaven thou promisest me 1 " asked Clovis. "No, but 



i8 JEANNE D'ARC 

it is the beginning of the road which leads there/' 
answered the bishop. And on the threshold of the 
baptistery, "Bow thy head," he said. "Adore that 
which thou hast burned, burn that which thou hast 
adored." The priest with holy oil could not reach the 
altar for the press in the church, and at the moment 
of baptism, it was said, a dove descended from heaven 
bearing the chrism in a flask, the sainte ampoule. 
As centuries went on and French kings were conse- 
crated at Reims and anointed with oil from the sainte 
ampotdey the story grew into association with the 
coronation of Clovis, who had founded the nation ; 
the people came to look upon the anointing of their 
kings as an emblem of sacred national life, and no 
man could be king by divine right until he had 
taken the oath at Reims and been consecrated with 
the holy oil. 

Through Domremy and Greux ran an old Roman 
road, a part of the highway which linked Burgundy 
and her provinces ; and as Jeanne sat in the doorway 
spinning with her mother, she could see creaking 
wains carrying wine to Flanders and returning to 
Dijon laden with the cloths of Ypres and Ghent. All 
the life of this great thoroughfare passed up and 
down before their cottage door: mendicant friars 
stopped to beg alms and tell of the countries beyond 
the valley, fugitives from the wars recounted their 
stories by the evening fire ; or some wayfarer quoted 



DOMREMY 19 

again the saying which was going about, that France, 
lost by a woman — the people hated well Isabeau 
of Bavaria and her Treaty of Troyes — should by a 
maid from the Bois Chesnu be saved. It mattered not 
that this legend had sprung from Brittany, where the 
seer Merlin had prophesied that " a marvelous Maid 
will come from an Ancient Wood for the healing of 
nations;" for in a late year, one Marie d' Avignon had 
caught up the saying and recounted to Charles VI a 
vision of an angel bearing arms and armor. "They 
are for a Maid," she was told, " who shall save France, 
ruined by a woman ; " and thus the popular hope and 
hatred were voiced in the presence of their majes- 
ties of France. The prophecy travelled far in these 
troubled times, and people wondered whence the 
Maid should come. In the valley of the Meuse, ** the 
Ancient Wood " could mean only the Bois Ckesmif and 
back the word came that France should be saved by 
a Maid from the Marches of Lorraine. The old road 
always had its tales for the villagers ; and little Jeanne 
heard of war and misery, of the dauphin, their right- 
ful lord, driven from his city of Paris, of the queen's 
treachery, and of the foreshadowed Maid. 

Now when the soldiers of France march down that 
road, they stop as they pass the cottage door, and 
present arms; but in those days, when news came 
through the valley of approaching war bands, it was 
the part of wisdom for man and beast to fly to cover. 



20 JEANNE D'ARC 

for the soldiery of Lorraine, with the Bretons, were 
accounted the greatest plunderers in the world. In 
1420, Jacques d'Arc and one Biget headed a syndi- 
cate of the villagers who leased, for protection in 
border foray, the Castle of the Island, a "strong 
house" of the Bourlemonts on a little island opposite 
the church. It had a great court and a garden well 
fortified by wall and moat, where in quiet times the 
children might play at war; but at any hint of dan- 
ger, the whole town fled there, driving their pigs 
and cattle before them, and Jeanne took a hand with 
the others, to help " drive the beasts from and to the 
Castle named the Island for fear of the men-at-arms." 
But when she was about thirteen years old, a band 
of marauders suddenly descended upon Domremy 
and drove all the cattle, its chief wealth, fifty miles 
away to Doulevant and Dommartin-le-Franc ; where- 
upon the hereditary lady of Bourlemont made such 
a cry to her powerful relative, the Comte de Vaude- 
mont, that he sent an expedition hotfoot after the 
pillagers, and the cattle were rescued and restored 
to their joyful owners. This niece of Pierre and Bea- 
trice had the qualities of her race, who could be loyal 
and just to their poor neighbors, as well as dance 
with them at the fairies' tree. One lord of the manor 
had directed in his will that if the villagers could show 
that a certain levy of two dozen goslings had been 
unjustly exacted, his heirs should make restitution. 



II 



THE VISION 

IN these surroundings Jeanne grew to girlhood, 
tall and beautiful, sound in body and mind. She 
was merry and straightforward and affection- 
ate, busy about her own small affairs and helpful to 
others. But her childish heart held more than laugh- 
ter and fairy-lore, or dutiful obedience to parents 
and church : she had learned something of misfor- 
tune and war, she had thrilled at the call of noble 
deeds, and grieved over the sorrows of that country 
whose Lord was the King of Heaven. As woman- 
hood dawned, all these influences deepened ; and 
her love, her loyalty, her sympathy with all wrong 
and suffering, were fused into a great passion, " the 
pity there was for the realm of France." " I had," 
she said, " a great will and desire that my king 
should have his kingdom." In this ready garden was 
dropped the seed of the great vision which, in its 
growth and blossoming, should absorb all her life. 
She herself tells the story of the day when heaven 
opened the gate that should nevermore be closed to 
her. 
" I was thirteen when I had a Voice from God for 



22 JEANNE D'ARC 

my help and guidance. The first time I heard this 
Voice I was a young child, and I was much afraid. It 
was mid-day in the summer, in my father's garden. I 
heard this Voice to the right, toward the church. It 
seemed to come to me from lips I should reverence. 
I believe it was sent to me from God." 

In the light that shone about her, she saw the 
image of a great angel, surrounded by many smaller 
ones, and it seemed to her that he must be St. 
Michael, captain of the heavenly hosts ; afterwards 
" he had taught me so well," she said, ** and it was 
so clear to me, that I believed firmly it was he." It 
is written in an old book that "the true office of 
St. Michael is to make great revelations to men be- 
low, by giving them holy counsels." His first gentle 
admonition to the little peasant girl was to be a good 
child and obey her mother and go often to church. 
" St. Catherine and St. Margaret will come to thee," 
said the Voice, "follow their counsel. They have 
been chosen to guide thee and counsel thee in all 
thou hast to do. Believe what they shall tell thee. 
It is the order of our Lord." The Voice came to her 
again and again ; she heard it in the forest, in the 
fields, when the bells were ringing for prayer, when 
she knelt with her neighbors in the parish church. 
"He told me of the great misery there was in the 
kingdom of France," she said. "Above all, he told 
me to be a good child and God would help me, — to 



THE VISION 23 

go to the help of the King of France, among other 
things." 

The piety and devotion of the girl deepened into a 
fervid wonder of faith. She locked the divine secret 
in her heart, showing forth only more tenderness and 
obedience, and the added gravity of one who shall 
bear great tidings. In after years, the only miracle 
her neighbors could remember was her unfailing 
goodness. She was a good girl, ** so good that all the 
village of Domremy loved her ; " " God-fearing, and 
without her like in the village." " Often she con- 
fessed her sins, and every day when I celebrated mass, 
she was there," said the curi ; but not even in con- 
fession did she reveal the secret of her heavenly vis- 
itors. "A good girl," said another, "virtuous, chaste, 
and pious, speaking in all simplicity, according to the 
precept of the Gospel : * Yes, no ; it is, it is not.' 
To affirm strongly, contenting herself with saying, 
* Without fail.'" Hauviette, her intimate, paints her 
as she stood in the village life : " She was a good 
girl, simple and gentle. She loved to frequent the 
church and sacred places. She used to spin and 
work like other girls. She would blush when they 
told her she was too devout and went too much to 
church." The cur^ said she would have given him 
money, if she could, to say masses. But she gave 
what she had : flowers for the altars, candles for the 
saints, loving service to all about her ; and because 



24 JEANNE D'ARC 

she could give no alms, "she would even sleep on the 
hearth that the poor might lie in her bed." She was 
an apt pupil in the school of her saints, and learned 
well to be a good child before she must con the great 
lesson heaven had in store for her. 

Even legend could add nothing to the story, but 
hit the gold of truth, as legend will : she was so gen- 
tle, birds ate from her hand; she was so brave, not 
the smallest animal was lost when she guarded the 
flock. In those after years, she herself said : "The 
poor folk came to me readily, because I never did 
them any unkindness;" and until the end of life she 
faced hungrier wolves than those of the Bois Chesnu. 
A pretty prelude was written to the story of the 
mid-day revelation in her father's garden. The chil- 
dren were running races in the meadow for a posy 
prize, and Jeanne skimmed the ground so lightly, 
they cried : " O Jeanne, you seem to fly ! " As she 
flung herself down, panting, a boy's voice said in her 
ear : "Go home; your mother wants you." But her 
mother had not sent for her, and when she went into 
the garden, there came the great light and the Voice 
from heaven. It was said that " the night she was 
born, the poor people of the place were seized with 
a mysterious joy. All ignorant of the birth of the 
young girl, they ran from house to house, asking what 
new thing had come to pass. For some it is a cause 
of new lightness. What more } The cocks, as heralds 



THE VISION 25 

of this new gladness, broke out into song of what 
•was not known to them ; they beat their wings, and 
for two hours they were heard to herald the good 
fortune of this new birth." 

For nearly four long years, she put aside the gayety 
of girlhood, and lived her simple, devout, tender life, 
helping her mother, loving her friends, obeying her 
father, while she wrestled with the growing convic- 
tion that it was she who must save France. She often 
saw St. Catherine and St. Margaret, ''their faces 
adorned with beautiful crowns, rich and precious." 
She kissed the ground where they had been ; she 
wept, and wished they would have taken her with 
them. To her the church was the threshold of heaven, 
and the voices of her inspiration took the form of 
its familiar saints, her ''Brothers of Paradise," she 
called them, who, after that first tender admonition in 
the garden, visited her ceaselessly for her comfort and 
guidance ; and through them the Voice of God sum- 
moned the genius of the girl to fulfill her destiny. 
The Voice came stronger and stronger. " You must 
go, you must go! Jeanne the Maid, daughter of God, 
you must go ! " " How can that be, since I am only 
a poor country girl, who can neither ride nor lead in 
war.?" was her answer; and her native good judg- 
ment and clear sight rebelled against the incredible 
message until her entire nature was alight. She had 
the imagination to picture splendid deeds, and earned 



26 JEANNE D'ARC 

the faith that power should be given her to accom- 
plish them ; yet she was to do some of her greatest 
work by what seemed an inspired common sense, 
flanked by unyielding tenacity of purpose. But now 
the mere thought of leaving her father and mother, 
her friends, the valley she loved so dearly, made her 
courage stagger. " Rather than have come to France 
save by the will of God," she afterwards said, " I 
would have been torn asunder by four horses." Yet 
while reason and affection held her to familiar ways, 
the call of her genius ever urged her on to what 
must be ; and when the time came for the flower of 
her faith to blossom, nothing could hold her back. 

In the spring of 1428, the fortunes of France had 
gone from bad to worse. The poor weak dauphin, 
called derisively by the English " the little King of 
Bourges," where he had fled from Paris, was holding 
his court in one chateau or another of middle France, 
and wondering whether it might not be better to give 
up the fight ; while Bedford ruled at Paris, and was 
planning to have the young Henry VI crowned King 
of France as soon as might be. At Vaucouleurs, the 
citadel of that loyal tract along the Meuse, a doughty 
captain of the king, Robert de Baudricourt, had held 
out for many years against his personal enemies and 
those of his master. He was brave as a lion, coarse, 
rough, domineering; and he could burn and pillage 
with the best of those swashbuckling brigands who 



THE VISION 27 

bore the name of soldiers of fortune. He had all their 
reckless courage and cruelty, and in addition as pretty 
a turn for making money as any modern long-head. 
With an eye to comfort at home, he had married a 
rich widow of the neighborhood, and scarcely was she 
dead than he filled her place with another as hand- 
somely endowed. Naturally he stole all he could from 
his enemies, and when he could get possession of 
their persons drove a bargain in topping ransoms ; he 
feared neither God nor man, but trusted to the strong 
right arm and crafty brain of Robert de Baudricourt ; 
and his good storehouse of Vaucouleurs he proposed to 
hold against all the power of England and Burgundy. 
But his case, too, was desperate. His enemies were 
closing in about him, determined to wipe out him, and 
with him, that little wedge of loyal France ; while at 
Domremy, only a few miles away, the villagers must 
have trembled at the peril of their strong town and 
their own danger. 

The time had come : the peasant girl was to be 
summoned to her incredible destiny. "Go into 
France," urged the Voice, ever more insistently. 
" Go to Robert de Baudricourt, Captain of Vaucou- 
leurs ; he will furnish you with an escort to accom- 
pany you." In her four years of conflict she had 
judged the nature of her messengers, and now her 
unerring vision showed her the stupendous height 
before her. Three things, at least, she knew must 



28 JEANNE D'ARC 

be done by her for the saving of the country : she 
must go to Vaucouleurs ; she must go to the dauphin 
under proper escort ; she must lead him to his due 
crowning at Reims, where he should be consecrated 
king with the sacred oil St. Remi had received from 
heaven. 

The first question was how to approach Baudri- 
court; everyone in the valley knew what manner of 
man he was. Then, too, Jacques d'Arc had appeared 
before him to plead a case for Domremy, and had 
tales to tell of rough play in the castle of the king 
and short shrift for those who balked his captain. 
There was no hope of help at home. Once her father 
had dreamed that he saw her going away in the com- 
pany of men-at-arms. *' If that should ever be," he 
said to his sons, " drown her ; and if you will not, I 
will." A man not to be disputed in his own house- 
hold was Jacques d'Arc. Yet to Baudricourt and the 
dauphin she must go ; and she hit upon a goodna- 
tured cousin, Durand Laxart, whom she sometimes 
called uncle, to take the first step with her. He lived 
with his young wife at Burey-le-Petit, a village three 
miles short of Vaucouleurs; and she risked nothing 
by telling of her mission at home, but set out for the 
Laxarts' home as if for a friendly visit. That she was 
** subtle with a woman's subtlety" was said of her 
with some truth ; and her path once descried, she was 
never to be persuaded to easier footing by peasant 



THE VISION 29 

or prince : "It is the will of God," was her sufficient 
answer to all withholding. 

In May, then, she started on her nine-mile walk 
to Burey-le-Petit, by way of the hill path beyond 
Greux. As she entered the forest, fragrant with the 
perfumed breath of spring, she must have realized 
that with the beauty of that cradling valley, she put 
behind her all the sacred isolation of her life with 
God. The world must now share the secret of destiny 
which had been hers alone, and as she passed the 
oratory of Bermont, we may be sure that she knelt 
at the altar and was heartened again by the brave 
Voice : *^Fille D^, va^ vuy va! Je serai a ton aide^ va^* 
" Daughter of God, go, go ! I will be thy aid." 

After a few days at Burey-le-Petit, she told Du- 
rand Laxart that she wished to go into France, to the 
dauphin, that he might be crowned. "I myself must 
go to Robert de Baudricourt, that he may have me 
conducted to the place where the dauphin is," was 
her astounding proposal. "Was it not foretold for- 
merly that France should be desolated by a woman 
and should be restored by a Maid } " she added in 
cunning argument, and Durand yielded and took her 
to Vaucouleurs. It is not hard to imagine the reception 
she had from Baudricourt. Bertrand de Poulengy, a 
squire who had been at Domremy a dozen years before 
and had sat under the fairies* tree, tells us of the inter- 
view. The peasant girl, in her worn red homespun, 



30 JEANNE D'ARC 

tall, beautiful, pale with emotion, went straight to 
Robert de Baudricourt as he sat among his men-at- 
arms. 

"I have come to you in behalf of my Lord," she 
said, *'in order that you shall bid the dauphin stand 
firm and not risk battle with his enemies, for my 
Lord Himself shall give him succor before mid- 
Lent." And she added: "The kingdom does not 
belong to the dauphin but to my Lord, Who wishes 
the dauphin to be made king and to hold the king- 
dom in command. In spite of his enemies, he must 
reign, and I shall lead him to his consecration." 

Here Baudricourt recovered himself sufficiently to 
ask : 

"Who is your lord?" 

"He is the King of Heaven." 

To be confronted in his own castle hall by a vision- 
ary girl who calmly informed him that it was she 
who should straighten out the troubles of distracted 
France was a stroke too much for the Captain of 
Vaucouleurs. The stone walls rang with his laugh- 
ter, and turning to Laxart, who had been standing 
by pricking with discomfiture, — 

" The girl is foolish. Box her ears and take her 
home to her father," said the Sire de Baudricourt. 

This ended the visit to Vaucouleurs, and Jeanne 
returned to Domremy. 

The village must have buzzed with gossip of her 



THE VISION 31 

expedition. *' She is bewitched. She has been to the 
fairies* tree ; we have seen her hanging garlands 
there. ^Les dames* gave her the notion of this mis- 
sion." But Jeanne laughed at that when her brother 
told her the story. " She says she will restore France 
and the royal line! " And they knew not whether to 
laugh or weep. Yet a young man took this time to 
press his suit for her hand, and Jacques and Isabeau 
were only too glad to favor him. He declared she 
had promised to marry him, and was persistent 
enough to summon her before the judge at Toul 
when she denied him. "Then," she said, "I swore 
to speak the truth. I had promised nothing to this 
man ; " and she won her case. To St. Catherine and 
St. Margaret she had promised her maidenhood so 
long as God should have work for her to do, and she 
had not yet started on her "sacred charge." She 
was quite unshaken by that rebuff of Baudricourt. 
" There is a girl between Coussey and Vaucouleurs 
who within the year will have the King of France 
consecrated," she told a youth on the Eve of St. John. 
G^rardin d'Epinal had married her "gossip" Isabel- 
lette, and she had been godmother for their son 
Nicolas. " ComphCy' said she one day to Gerardin, 
" if you were not Burgundian, I would tell you some- 
thing," and he thought she had some marriage in her 
head. 

In July, the valley was especially menaced by the 



32 JEANNE D'ARC 

Burgundians, and the people of Domremy, with all 
their goods and cattle, fled to Neufchateau, six miles 
farther up the river, a city of Lorraine, but French 
in its sympathies. Here for some days the d'Arcs 
lodged at an inn kept by a worthy widow called La 
Rousse ; and Jeanne, who never was idle wherever 
she might be, helped in the care of their cattle and 
in the work of the house. When the villagers re- 
turned to their homes, they found that the marauders 
had done their best to destroy the town. The stone 
cottages were dismantled, even the church was in 
ruins, and they must go to Greux to hear mass. 
There was a veritable reign of terror in all the re- 
gion about; and to add to the consternation, news 
must have come in the autumn that the English were 
besieging Orleans, that strong independent old city 
which was called the key of the Loire. Should this 
fall, except by miracle, France could not be saved. 

Again her Voices urged the girl forward. "Go 
into France, daughter of God, go. Raise the siege 
which is being made before the city of Orleans." 
And Jeanne determined to go once more to Vau- 
couleurs. There was a newborn baby in the Laxart 
household, and she saw that Durand might ask her 
from her father as nurse. Goodhearted, simple Du- 
rand was ever as wax in her hands, and Jacques d' Arc 
probably thought she would be as safe at Burey-le- 
Petit as anywhere. Certainly no one could suppose 



THE VISION 33 

that she would seek out Baudricourt a second time, 
or imagine that she should go to France by way of 
Vaucouleurs. 

On the winter day when Durand came creaking 
over the white frozen roads in his clumsy cart to 
fetch her, she knew that she must go with no emo- 
tion of farewell to those she loved ; Jacques and Isa- 
beau must suspect nothing beyond the visit at Burey- 
le-Petit. " Goodbye, Mengette. God guard you," she 
said to the little neighbor who was now betrothed. 
But she had no courage for Hauviette. " I did not 
know of Jeanne's departure. I wept much," said Hau- 
viette many years after. " I loved her dearly for her 
goodness, and because she was my friend." "Fare- 
well, Guillemette. I go to Vaucouleurs," she dared to 
cry as they passed a cottage at Greux. 

Jeanne's tender, loyal heart must have been wrung 
by the thought that this was goodbye forever to 
her home, but her purpose never wavered. " I go to 
Vaucouleurs," was her last word. She was deliber- 
ately disobeying her parents, but there was no other 
way. "God commanded it," she said, "and had I had 
a hundred fathers, a hundred mothers, had I been 
daughter to a king, I should have gone none the less." 



Ill 

VAUCOULEURS 

JEANNE left her home early in January, 1429, 
when she was barely seventeen years old. She 
had promised her kinsman service, and that she 
gave with the simplicity and vigor that often deceived 
those about her. "In all she did, save where her 
mission lay," they said again and again, "she was a 
very simple girl." And now, glowing as she was 
with the fire of her high resolve, she nursed the 
mother and child at Burey-le-Petit as devotedly as if 
she had no thought beyond the life of that humble 
household. Yet often, as she hushed the baby on her 
breast, her dark eyes must have looked beyond the 
tiny head at Michael marshalling the hosts of France. 
Her work finished, she was free to obey the Voice 
that never ceased to urge her forward. *' I must go," 
she said again to Durand Laxart. " I must seek Rob- 
ert de Baudricourt in order that he may send me to 
the place where the dauphin is." And Durand, won 
now for any bidding, took her to Vaucouleurs and 
placed her under the roof of his friends Henri le 
Royer, a wheelwright, and his wife Catherine. 
Hills hug the river more closely here than at 



VAUCOULEURS 35 

Domremy, and Vaucouleurs sits with its feet in the 
meadows and the narrow streets closely packed 
within its walls making up toward the castle, which 
is itself overtopped by the crest of a hill. It was a 
hard place to hold against an enemy ; probably the 
craft of Robert de Baudricourt had ever been its 
best defence, and he had now, by some device, post- 
poned attack upon the town. But there was heavy 
news from Orleans. 

In reality, the English had undertaken the siege 
with insufficient men and supplies. "And all thing 
then prospered for you, till the tyme of the Siege of 
Orleans, taken in hand, God knoweth by what advis," 
wrote Bedford to the English Parliament in 1433. 
But they made a brave show, and after a spirited 
attack, when the Tourelles, the strong fort which 
guarded the bridgehead on the south bank of the 
Loire, was captured, they were gradually surrounding 
the town with a circle of fortifications, by which they 
hoped in time to starve it into surrender. The citi- 
zens had destroyed their beautiful suburbs, which 
had as many inhabitants as the city itself, lest shel- 
ter should be afforded the enemy ; the city was pro- 
tected by high and thick walls crowned by thirty 
great towers, and by the river at its feet. It was well 
provisioned and supplied with all the materials of 
war ; the people were brave and loyal, and one or 
another of the French captains and their companies 



36 JEANNE D'ARC 

had slipped by the forts to aid them. But France 
had no great leader, and these English were known 
as very devils; it was said they had tails, and they 
denied God ceaselessly with their " Goddam," where- 
fore all good Frenchmen called them Godons. And 
now, such was their prestige, with such dismay had 
their dreadful hurrah inspired French hearts, that no 
concerted attack was made upon them. The forces 
of England varied ; men had been withdrawn for 
garrison duty elsewhere and were replaced slowly, as 
opportunity served. At the taking of the Tourelles 
their commander, Salisbury, had been killed. As he 
climbed one of the towers of the fort, a captain said 
to him : " My lord, behold your good city. Here you 
see it well." But a chance shot from the walls blew 
off half his head, and after his death, the English 
force broke up, leaving only five hundred men to 
guard their forts. In December, however, their great 
captain, Talbot, had arrived with reinforcements ; and 
on February 12, in the ** battle of the herrings," an 
ill-planned attack at Rouvray upon a convoy bearing 
Lenten fare to the English army under the command 
of Sir John Fastolf, the French were defeated, and 
England lost some blood, and the fish for her good 
churchmen from carts hastily drawn up for a rampart. 
The English went on building their great bastilles, 
high earthworks topped with palisades ; the French 
kept up their futile skirmishing, and their famous 



VAUCOULEURS 37 

gunner, Maitre Jean the Lorrainer, picked off his 
Englishmen day by day. A humorous person was 
Maitre Jean, who put himself to some inconvenience 
to divert the enemy. " In order to mock them," says 
the chronicle, "sometimes he let himself fall to the 
ground, feigning to be dead or wounded, and thus 
was carried into the city. But incontinently he re- 
turned to the fight, and so bore himself that the 
English knew him for a live man to their great harm 
and discomfort.'* The siege, conducted in the polite 
and leisurely manner of the time, had its pleasant in- 
terludes. English knights challenged Frenchmen to 
single combat, or the pages of besieged and besiegers 
were turned loose on an island in the river to pummel 
one another for the glory of England or France and 
the amusement of the armies. On Christmas Day 
there was a truce, and French minstrels made music 
for the enemy ; and Dunois, then known as the Bastard 
of Orleans, lieutenant-general of the dauphin, sent 
Suffolk a present of a furred cloak in return for a 
plate of figs and dates. Weeks passed by, the French 
not daring to attack the English, the English not 
strong enough to take the city and relying upon the 
growing cordon of their fortifications, while the rem- 
nant of Charles's adherents watched with anxious 
eyes the fortunes of the siege which should decide 
the fate of France. 

Again and again Jeanne sought out Baudricourt. 



38 JEANNE D'ARC 

" Sir captain, do you not know that God has many 
times made known to me that I must go to the gen- 
tle dauphin, who ought to be, and is, true King of 
France? And that he will give me men-at-arms, and 
that I shall raise the siege of Orleans, and lead him 
to be consecrated at Reims?" 

And Robert did not laugh now, although he gave 
no promise of help. The girl's persistence and dig- 
nity must have made their impression upon the rough 
soldier; but her mystical faith in her mission puzzled 
him, and it occurred to him that she might be pos- 
sessed by some spirit, — whether good or evil, he 
determined to find out. One day while Catherine le 
Royer and Jeanne were quietly sewing, Baudricourt 
appeared in the doorway, accompanied by the parish 
priest. Putting on his stole and advancing toward 
Jeanne, the cur^ pronounced the solemn exorcism : 
** If thou art a thing of evil, begone ; if a thing of 
good, approach." And for answer, Jeanne fell on her 
knees before him ; but she afterwards said to Cather- 
ine : " The act was ill done. He had heard me in con- 
fession, and knew what manner of girl I was." This 
settled the question of evil spirits ; but still Baudri- 
court delayed, perhaps to send news to the dauphin 
of this maiden from the Marches of Lorraine. 

One day a young knight, Jean de Nouillompont, 
commonly called Jean de Metz, who remembered her 
first visit, saw Jeanne and called out : 



VAUCOULEURS 39 

" Well, my dear, what are you doing here ? How 
about the king being driven from his kingdom, and 
all of us being English ? " 

But the girl's heart was too full for light words. 

"I am come to this royal town," she responded, 
"to ask Robert de Baudricourt to send me to the 
dauphin. But Robert does not heed me or my words. 
Nevertheless, by mid- Lent I must come before the 
dauphin, though I wear my legs to the knee to do 
it. For no one in the world, kings, nor dukes, nor 
the daughter of the King of Scotland, nor any other, 
can save the kingdom of France. There is no succor 
to be expected but from me." 

She had heard of the betrothal of the child who 
was to be Louis XI to little Margaret of Scotland, 
and the promised dowry of an army. But she put 
no faith in such help. It was she, and she alone, 
who must save France : that was the vision that 
kept her soul alight. And then the brave heart 
added : 

" In truth I would rather be spinning with my poor 
mother, since this is not my station. But I must go 
and this I must do, because my Lord wills that I 
should do it." 

And Jean de Metz asked, as had Baudricourt, — 

"Who is this lord.?" 

"He is God." 

Then the bluff soldier with a knightly heart placed 



40 JEANNE D'ARC 

his hands in hers in the old feudal fashion, and 
pledged his faith to her. 

'' I, Jean, swear to you, Maid, my hands in your 
hands, that I, God helping me, will lead you to the 
king, and I ask when you will go." 

"Now," said she, "better than tomorrow; better 
tomorrow than later." 

Bertrand de Poulengy, who witnessed her first 
visit to the castle, made her a like promise, and these 
two were unfailing in their loyalty. 

Burning with impatience to be gone, stabbed with 
homesickness for those she had left forever, the days 
hung heavy on Jeanne's spirit ; but, as usual, she did 
the work under her hand, and that work no one 
could do better. Now she helped Catherine le Royer 
in humble household ways : " A good, simple, gentle, 
well-conducted girl," said Catherine. And she went 
often to pray in the chapel of the castle, where a 
little choir boy, as he testified twenty-seven years 
later, used to see her kneeling before the Virgin, 
sometimes bowed to the ground, again with her face 
raised to heaven. She took the Sacrament often, 
weeping, it was said, floods of tears ; and indeed the 
eager, high-strung spirit must have been strained to 
the breaking-point as the call of her mission sounded 
ever clearer in her ears, and she was powerless to 
obey. Once she started on foot. Laxart said: 
"When the Maid saw that Robert de Baudricourt 



VAUCOULEURS 41 

would not have her led to the place where the dau- 
phin was, she took clothes from me, and said she 
must be going; and I went with her as far as St. 
Nicolas." But this was not the appointed way, she 
knew, and she returned to Vaucouleurs. 

And she was to make another journey, with no 
more result, to Nancy, where the old Duke of Lor- 
raine was ill of the disease which was to be his death. 
He may have been persuaded to send for her by his 
son-in-law, Ren6 of Anjou, afterwards the "good 
King Rend " of minstrel and troubadour, who was 
now Duke of Bar and brother-in-law of the dauphin. 
He had been allied more than once with Baudri- 
court against their common enemies ; he wished to 
keep his allegiance to France, and may have caught 
at any means to swing Lorraine into line. It may be 
that Jeanne herself and her friends, despairing of 
Baudricourt, hoped for some chance that she might 
be sent to the dauphin ; or perhaps the old duke had 
heard of her only as a witch, who might cure his ill- 
ness. At any rate, she set out under safe-conduct 
from him, clad now for travelling in men's clothes 
lent to her by Jean de Metz. Metz, Laxart, and an- 
other peasant, Jacques Alain, accompanied her, Metz 
turning back at Toul. But the duke found no help 
for his sickness, and Jeanne found none for France. 
Afterwards she said that he asked her about a cure 
for his disease, concerning which, she said, she knew 



42 JEANNE D'ARC 

nothing; but she told him of her journey, and asked 
him to lend her his son, with men, to lead her into 
France, and she would pray for his better health. 
Another story is that Jeanne told him he must mend 
his ways and become reconciled to his wife before he 
should hope for good fortune. But he received her 
honorably, gave her a few francs, some say a black 
horse, also, and sent her away. She visited a famous 
shrine at St. Nicolas-du-Port, not far from Nancy, 
and returned to Vaucouleurs. This journey was her 
first experience of travelling, her first taste of courts ; 
but her splendid- young body was proof against fa- 
tigue, and she was too simple-hearted, too wrapped 
up in the vision of her great work, to be abashed 
by princes. She always had the best manners in the 
world because she never thought of herself; and 
to her a man, were he peasant or noble, was but a 
man, — all save the king. He was a sacred being set 
apart. 

Meantime the fame of her goodness and a grow- 
ing belief in her mission had been working for her 
at Vaucouleurs. " I should have been well pleased to 
have had a daughter as good as she,** proffered the 
Lord of Ourches, who often saw her there and heard 
her say that she wished to be taken to the dauphin. 
" It is necessary that I should go to the noble dau- 
phin," she had told them again and again. *'My 
Lord the King of Heaven wills that I should go. I 



VAUCOULEURS 43 

go in the name of the King of Heaven. Even if I 
drag myself thither on my knees, must I go." 

Probably, too, Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Pou- 
lengy had not been idle, and the people had deter- 
mined to fit her out for her journey. Their gifts bought 
her a page's simple suit : a close-fitting vest, trunk 
and hose of black, with a short dark gray cloak and 
a black cap. She had cut her dark hair short, saucer- 
fashion, as the men then wore it ; and the only token 
of the old life she carried was a gold ring her father 
and mother had given her, inscribed with the words : 
" JhesuSy Maria.'* A stout horse was bought for 
sixteen francs, and Metz and Poulengy made them- 
selves sureties for the expenses of the journey. All 
the modest outlay was later made good from the 
king's treasury; but the most credulous imagina- 
tion could not have guessed the destiny which lay 
before this girl, who seemed as other girls save for 
the compelling power of her will. 

Baudricourt's consent must now be obtained, and 
she went to him again and cried out : 

**In God's name, you are too slow in sending me; 
for this day the gentle dauphin has had near Orleans 
a great loss, and he will suffer greater, if you do not 
send me soon to him." 

Baudricourt afterwards took this to be a vision of 
the defeat at Rouvray ; but reluctant or indifferent 
to the last, he gave her no help, although he did not 



44 JEANNE D'ARC 

oppose her going. In any case, Jeanne's sense of im- 
pending doom for France had deepened, and perhaps 
her impatience to be gone was aggravated by the 
conviction that she was equal to her mission: in 
these years of struggle against destiny that sure fore- 
knowledge had come to fortify her spirit. 

Then, when the way seemed clear, she sent a letter 
to her parents, bidding them farewell, and asking 
their pardon for her disobedience. She herself has 
said that her father was beside himself when he knew 
that she had gone to Vaucouleurs, but no word has 
come to us of how they had borne these first weeks 
after she left home ; and we can imagine that they 
had begun to believe in her mission, or had given 
her up as mad and beyond all hope. In any case, we 
know of no attempt to force her return to Domremy, 
only that in the end they forgave her for going. 

On the evening of February 23, the people assem- 
bled at the Gate of France, as it is still called, to see 
her go. A month before she had been known to 
a few as a goodhearted, visionary peasant lass, and 
now the city was at its gate to bid her Godspeed. 
Yet it seemed incredible that this slender, quiet girl, 
in her page's suit, could be the Maid marked out by 
prophecy, and perhaps hers was the only heart that 
held no doubt or fear. 

"How can you hope to make such a journey and 
escape the enemy.?" they asked. 



VAUCOULEURS 45 

**I fear them not," rang the answer. "I have a 
sure road. If the enemy are on my road, I have God 
with me, Who knows how to prepare the way to the 
lord dauphin. I was born to do this." Then she 
mounted her horse, called her men about her, and 
prepared to set forth. 

Her escort was made up of six men, well armed 
and equipped : the faithful Jean de Metz and Bertrand 
de Poulengy, their two servants, Coiet de Vienne, a 
king's messenger who chanced to be at Vaucouleurs, 
and Richard I'Archer. Even Robert de Baudricourt 
came down from the castle, and made his men take 
an oath to guard her well and safely, and gave her a 
sword and a letter to the dauphin ; but as the little 
cavalcade swung out into the night, and women wept 
to see them go, he called out, with a last qualm of 
doubt : 

" Off with you, then, whatever comes of it !" 



IV 

FRANCE 

IT was a long and dangerous road to Chinon, 
where the dauphin was holding his court : more 
than three hundred miles as the bird flies, 
through a country overrun with bands of the enemy 
and marauding men-at-arms. No wonder Metz and 
Poulengy could not conceal their uneasiness ; Jeanne 
alone was unconcerned, and rode forward with her 
face steadfast to the future. Their first stop was 
at the Benedictine monastery of St. Urbain, whose 
abbot was a relative of Baudricourt ; and no doubt 
Jeanne heard mass there in the morning before she 
mounted to take the road to France. Thence the way 
lay through a land ravaged and deserted, across riv- 
ers swollen by winter rains, over hills covered with 
forests, down into the valley of the Loire. 

The whole country was so devastated by war and 
pillaged by adventurers that it is a wonder where the 
crops came from to feed those hungry locusts of 
fighting men, and that any laborers were left to till 
the soil. All men-at-arms were hated alike by the 
common people. France could not pay the fierce sol- 
diers of fortune who drew sword for the dauphin, 



FRANCE 47 

and so they wrung their wage from the wretched 
peasantry. They stole what they could, they de- 
stroyed what was left; they tortured, and ravaged 
and killed. It was said that "the lean and bare la- 
borers in the country did terrify even thieves them- 
selves. The least fences and hamlets were fortified by 
these robbers — English, Burgundians, and French 
— each one striving to do his worst. All men of war 
were well agreed to spoil the husbandman and the 
merchant. Even the cattle, accustomed to the larum- 
bell, the sign of the enemy's approach, would run 
home of themselves, without any guide." 

In 1405, a great doctor of the University of Paris, 
Jean Gerson, who in his old age was to say wise 
things of the Maid, dared preach a sermon before 
the king and his court on the sufferings of the peo- 
ple. He prayed that the troops might be paid to keep 
them from plundering the peasant, whose wretched 
condition he described in biting words. " How can 
the king," he cried, "call himself the king of the 
free {Francorum rex) } " The common people are 
pillaged both by the nobles and the soldiery. " You, 
prince, you have not done these evils, it is true, but 
you have permitted them. Children, men, beasts, all 
are dying of hunger. God, of His grace, calls upon 
you for the remedy, most noble and excellent lords, 
for the political and civil well-being of the king: 
VivatRex!'* But the lords had given no succor. 



48 JEANNE D'ARC 

and the country had fallen ever deeper into the abyss 
of its wretchedness. 

The dark side of this fifteenth century was very . 
black indeed, with its dreadful lust and cruelty, and 
misery and discomfort inconceivable to us. Yet some- 
how life went on, and when the moment's danger 
passed, men lived with added zest, 'perhaps, and loved 
and married and suffered the joys and sorrows com- 
mon to every age. Even pleasure had its place. It is 
said the people were devoted to sports. Hockey and 
football were favorite games ; and it was not only in 
palaces that there was dancing and singing, for many 
of the lovely old songs of the common people have 
come down to us. In a few of the monasteries was 
learning and a wonderful mystic piety ; and in one 
Thomas a Kempis was finishing his Imitation of Christ. 
In this quiet house of the Brothers of the Common 
Life, whose ideal was nothing in excess and whose 
rule was simplicity, charity, and love of God, he 
passed lovely days ; and while all Europe seethed with 
war and flaunted its splendor and wretchedness, he 
read his " little book in a little nook," meditated, and 
wrote, and tended the garden. Even then, when hu- 
man welfare seemed at lowest ebb, fires were kindling 
which were to light the new birth of learning and of 
love toward God and man. And now the Maid rode 
forth to save France, strong in the possession of 
genius for doing well the thing that must be done, 



FRANCE 49 

unswerving loyalty to her vision, and beautiful obedi- 
ence to her Lord the Kins: of Heaven. 

The little company, for greater safety, often rode 
by night, averaging their thirty miles in the twenty- 
four hours. This was a tremendous test for the girl 
of seventeen, unused to "riding or leading men in 
war," but her strength and courage never flagged. 
They avoided the more frequented roads when they 
could, forded brimming rivers they dared not cross by 
bridge, and deadened the clatter of hoofs on frozen 
ground by muffling the horses' feet in cloth. They 
must rest in the open ; and Jeanne, wrapped in her 
cloak, slept with her face to the stars, with Metz and 
Poulengy, who had sworn to guard her well, on either 
side. The wonder and veneration of her companions 
deepened as the days went on, yet sometimes they 
must doubt. 

"Will you really do all you say.?" asked Metz 
more than once. 

" Have no fear," came the unwavering response. 
" What I am commanded to do, I will do. My Brothers 
of Paradise have told me how to act. It is now four or 
five years since they and my Lord told me that I must 
go and fight in order to regain the kingdom of France." 

There was a story that some of the men at first 
thought her mad, and intended to throw her into a 
ditch ; and one day they feigned an attack of the 
enemy, while those with her pretended panic. 



50 JEANNE D'ARC 

** Fly not, in God's name," she cried. "They will 
do us no harm." 

But as time passed, she won them to heartwhole 
service, and the rough soldiers were as gentle with 
her as if they had learned their lesson from her 
Brothers of Paradise. It was her own unfailing and 
entire obedience to the highest she knew that was 
the secret of her sway. The common people, espe- 
cially, were always eager for her bidding : "they were 
moved to do everything according to her good pleas- 
ure . . . nor could they resist her wishes," was the 
story of today and of all the triumphant days to 
come. 

" Her words burned in me," said Poulengy, "for I 
saw indeed she was a messenger of God. She was as 
good as if she had been a saint." 

" I think she must have been sent from God ; she 
never swore," said Jean de Metz, who once had paid 
a fine for his mighty oaths. And her ardent faith in- 
spired him to like faith in her. 

Yet as Chinon loomed larger than Vaucouleurs, 
they felt some disquietude about their reception. 

"We have nothing to fear," was the unfaltering 
answer. " Once arrived, the noble dauphin will give 
us good countenance." 

After four or five days of hard riding, they came 
to Auxerre on the Yonne, a city of Burgundy. Per- 
haps they drew near the town as the church bells. 



FRANCE 51 

which Jeanne loved so much, were ringing out the 
hour of mass. She insisted on a halt. ** If we could 
hear mass, we should do well," she had said many 
times. The men, no doubt, were glad of the chance 
to get provisions, no easy task for that company of 
seven hungry people in the hostile and devastated 
country they had travelled, and the horses would be 
the [better for a few hours' rest; so, mingling with 
the crowd, they crossed the great bridge to the city. 
Jeanne heard mass in the cathedral ; and the simple 
country girl, whose spirit was so responsive to all 
lovely things, must have felt paradise very near in that 
unaccustomed beauty of splendid pier and springing 
arch bathed in the great windows' glorious light. 

That afternoon, they set out again for the Loire, 
still more than forty miles away, and there they 
stopped at Gien, the first town of "France " to meet 
Jeanne's eyes. At her feet the river flowed down to 
the city she was to save, and beyond lay the mission 
for which she was born. Probably she heard mass 
again in the old church of St. Etienne, overlooking 
the Loire ; and her men seemed to have gossiped 
about their business, for a report flashed down to 
Orleans that "a young girl, commonly called the 
Maid, had just passed through Gien, who avowed 
her purpose of raising the siege and leading the 
dauphin to Reims for his anointing." Orleans was 
losing all hope of succor save from God, and Dunois 



52 JEANNE D'ARC 

despatched messengers posthaste to meet the Maid 
at Chinon. 

But time was precious, and Jeanne and her com- 
pany rode on across the "sad and sandy" Solonge, 
by vineyard and forest and meadow, still in their 
dun winter dress, down into Touraine, "land of 
laughter and do-nothing." As they crossed the "am- 
ber meadow" of the Indres, they must have drawn 
rein to look over at the great chateau of Loches ; 
but no royal standard floated from its tower, and 
they pushed on to Fierbois, a village fifteen miles 
short of Chinon. 

Here she despatched a letter to the dauphin, ask- 
ing permission to enter his town, for she had ridden 
a hundred and fifty leagues to bring him good news. 
As they waited for an answer, Jeanne heard three 
masses in the Church of St. Catherine, and she could 
give this last day that bridged the old life and the 
new to one of her beloved saints whose unswerving 
counsel had guided her to the crossing. And to- 
morrow, when she should be coming " to the place 
where the dauphin was," it would be Laetare Sun- 
day, when Domremy and Greux would be making 
their fountains at the Wells of the Thornbush and 
St. Thibault ; and at mass would be chanted the in- 
troit: " Rejoice, O Jerusalem, and make an assembly, 
all ye who love her. Rejoice with gladness, ye who 
have been in sadness." 



FRANCE 53 

The next morning, March 6, they rode into Chinon, 
and Jeanne stopped at an inn in the narrow old 
streets below the castle, where the dauphin sent his 
wise men to visit this girl who might be saint or 
witch. "I am come to raise the siege of Orleans, and 
to lead the dauphin to Reims for his anointing," was 
her one answer to all their questioning. After two 
days' hesitation, they thought it might be safe for 
her to enter the castle ; but even as she crossed the 
moat, the king and his counsellors were debating 
whether he should receive her ; and this royal mum- 
ble-jumbling, shot through with her clear persistence, 
sounded the chord of all their intercourse. 

As she entered the gate, a soldier called out a 
brutal insult, accompanied by an oath. " Alas ! " said 
she, turning to look at him with her pure eyes, 
"thou deniest Him, and art so near death," And 
when shortly afterward he was drowned, the story 
was told as proof of her power of prophecy. 

Fifty torches flamed to the vaulted height of the 
great audience chamber, as Jeanne was led into the 
royal presence by Louis de Bourbon, Comte de Ven- 
dome. The room was crowded with three hundred 
lords and gentlemen, some in the clumsy court dress 
that made them look like gorgeously muffled old 
women, others in trunk and hose and fine doublet; 
and in the throng was the poet Alain Chartier, with 
his sugar-loaf hat hung by ribbons at his back. The 



54 JEANNE D'ARC 

queen, Marie of Anjou, was at Bourges, but other 
ladies of the court were there, in their heavy robes 
and floating veils, and hair carefully concealed under 
their peaked caps. But the peasant girl, clad in her 
travel- worn page's suit of black and gray, was un- 
dismayed by the splendor : her thought was on France 
and the heaven above it. The courtiers thought to 
play a trick upon her by pushing forward another as 
the king; but approaching with "great humility and 
simplicity," said one who was present, she knelt be- 
fore Charles "the length of a lance away." 

" God give you good life, fair dauphin." 

"Here is the king," said Charles, pointing to a 
richly dressed courtier. 

" In God's name, gentle prince, it is you and not 
another," she chided, with no mind for jesting or 
delay. " Most noble dauphin, I am Jeanne the Maid. 
I am come, and am sent to you from God, to give 
succor to the kingdom and to you. The King of 
Heaven sends you word by me that you shall be 
anointed and crowned in the town of Reims, and you 
shall be lieutenant of the King of Heaven, Who is 
King of France." 

The dauphin was but a shambling figure in the 
councils of a kingdom, yet after his limp, well mean- 
ing kind, he had a pretty complaisance to inferiors 
in rank; and now, swayed by the girl's earnestness, 
he raised her in his most obliging manner, and drew 



FRANCE 55 

her aside that he might speak to her alone; and even 
the courtiers, looking only for a target for the light 
shaft of their ridicule, were impressed with the free 
unconscious dignity of the shabby stranger. " She 
bears herself as if she had lived at courts," said one 
to another. 

" On the part of my Lord, I tell thee thou art true 
heir of France and son of the king ; and He sends 
me to lead thee to Reims to the end that thou mayst 
receive thy crowning and thy consecration," said 
Jeanne to the dauphin as they went apart, while the 
courtiers watched them curiously. 

" As to what she said to the king," wrote Alain 
Chartier, "no one knew. But it was manifest that the 
king was greatly encouraged as if by the Spirit." 
Jeanne herself said that she gave him a secret " sign " 
by which he should recognize the truth of her mission; 
and Dunois told on the king's own authority, he said, 
that " the Maid confirmed her account by rehears- 
ing to the king matters so secret and hidden that no 
mortal except himself could know them save by di- 
vine revelation." There was much speculation about 
the " king's secret," as it was called ; and many years 
after, Charles himself confided to a gentleman of the 
bedchamber that the secret of which Jeanne told him 
was a prayer he had offered one morning in his ora- 
tory. " A humble request and prayer to our Lord, out 
of his heart, uttering no words, that if he were true 



56 JEANNE D'ARC 

descendant of the noble house of France and the 
kingdom rightfully his own, God would please to 
guard and defend him ; or at least grant him grace to 
avoid death and captivity, and escape to Spain and 
Scotland, whose kings were of all ancientry brothers 
in arms and allies of the kings of France ; wherefore 
he had chosen them as his last refuge.'* 



V 

CHINON 

CHINON, "little town of great renown," 
crouches at the foot of the great castle, 
which stretches its length of wall and tower 
on a high plateau overlooking the valley of the green 
Vienne and a limitless country of forest and vine- 
yard and cultivated fields. Only to the northeast a 
ridge cuts off the farther world, and here was the 
road by which Jeanne came riding in, with the wide 
sweep of Touraine down there below her. Three cas- 
tles, built in different centuries, of the white stone 
of the country, make up that great line of masonry, 
and the wall of the Ch&teau de St. Georges, built by 
Henry Plantagenet in the old days when England 
had her provinces in middle France, frowns upon the 
road. In its thickness men had scooped out poor 
cave-dwellings, and peered out upon passersby like 
animals from their holes ; and the road, now like a 
paved gutter for narrowness, led directly up the steep 
ascent to the middle castle, the Chateau du Milieu, 
where the dauphin held his court. Beyond, the Cha- 
teau de Coudray was reached by a bridge spanning the 
deep moat ; and in one of its three towers, the Tour 



58 JEANNE D'ARC 

de Coudray, Jeanne was lodged as a special charge 
of the king's majordomo, Guillaume du Bellier, and 
his wife, who was "most devout and of the best repu- 
tation." Raoul de Gaucourt, the old commander of 
Orleans, who was also captain of Chinon, had been 
wounded early in the siege and was now at court, and 
he appointed one of his pages, Louis de Coutes, a 
lad of fourteen, of poor but noble family, to attend 
the Maid. Louis, who was nicknamed Immerguet, or 
Minguet, or Mugot, saw her many times going and 
coming to the king, and great people visiting her. 

Poor Jeanne ! men never could believe the simple 
truth about her, that she was an inspired girl marked 
out to be the savior of France, but must think her 
possessed of some evil spirit, or mad, or a sorceress ; 
and wiseacres of the court came day after day to ply 
her with questions about the mission that seemed 
so clear to her. Orleans must be relieved, the king 
must be crowned, the English must be driven from 
the country. Did not those deeds cry aloud for the 
dullest ears .-* But a waiting game, with no great ven- 
ture risked, was most profitable for the courtiers, who 
were united, at least, in apprehension of any strong 
hand that might sweep aside their futile dealing. 

It was a strange court which was being held at 
Chinon. The affairs of Charles were at such low ebb 
that the wife of his receiver-general said that neither 
of the king's money nor his own had her husband 



CHINON 59 

four icus d'or. The dauphin had sold his trinkets, 
his crown had but two fleurons left, the gold band of 
bis helmet was gone, he had pawned his great dia- 
mond, "the Mirror." Even palace turnspits were 
clamoring for their wages, and royal clothes were be- 
ginning to show the pinch of poverty. Tours had 
given the queen useful presents of linen for her need, 
and Charles must have new sleeves set in his doub- 
let ; but when his shoemaker refused to leave new 
shoes without pay, the penniless king kicked him 
and his goods out of the room together, and went 
down at heel. The larder sometimes ran low, and the 
captains La Hire and Poton, visiting at court one 
day, came upon their majesties of France dining on 
two pullets and a sheep's tail. 

Charles himself was a poor figure of a king. The 
son of a mad father and a vicious mother, he was 
timid and indolent, moody and suspicious. Unfitted 
to cope with the troubles of the time, he diverted 
his mind as he could from the wretchedness it was 
his business to set right, and grasped at every form 
of pleasure. "Never did a king lose his kingdom 
so gaily," said one of his soldiers. Idle, luxurious, 
morbid, he loitered in one chateau or another while 
France was lost. Then, again, sunk in melancholy 
and fretted by remorse, he spent days alone in 
prayer. He was generous and kind-hearted, but the 
times called for sterner qualities than these. One of 



6o JEANNE D'ARC 

his own council told him he was always " wishing to 
hide from his people in castles and out of the way- 
places," and a contemporary said he was "stupid 
with self-indulgence and slothfulness." One pictures 
him as " very ugly, with small gray wandering eyes, 
a thick nose, and bandy legs ; " another calls him ** a 
handsome prince, well-Ian guaged, and full of pity for 
the poor." But whatever he may have seemed to 
others, to Jeanne he was the representative on earth 
of her Lord the King of Heaven ; and in a last cruel 
moment, when her heart must have known him for 
the man he was, her loyal lips declared him "the 
noblest of Christians." 

A succession of favorites ruled the king. Grim, 
loyal Arthur of Brittany, Comte de Richemont and 
Constable of France, had drowned one with short 
shrift, and had another slain as he rode in the fields. 
Then he had given the dauphin Georges de la Trd- 
mouille. " You will repent it," said Charles. "I know 
him better than you do." A shrewd judgment, for 
his first work was to throw down the ladder he had 
climbed by, and Richemont was banished from court. 
Six years La Tremouille ruled king and country for 
their ruin ; and openly or secretly he was ever an en- 
emy of the Maid. He used his power chiefly to fill 
his own pockets, and became the great usurer of the 
court, lending freely to dauphin and nobles for the 
sound security of lands and jewels. Of a Burgundian 



CHINON 6i 

family, his bread probably was buttered on both 
sides ; and for some dark reason his possessions were 
never molested by English or Burgundians, while 
much of the money which the dauphin could wring 
from the commoners went to swell his hoard. Mer- 
chants and townsmen obeyed reluctantly enough 
when the Estates were now convoked yearly and 
even half yearly, for they travelled through the coun- 
try at risk of their lives, and escaped the dangers 
of the road only to be fleeced at court. When they 
declared their willingness to help the king, but inti- 
mated that money might be well spent in putting 
down highwaymen, drowning was commended for 
such fellows as they, and forthwith they voted a 
thumping sum, no penny of which should escape 
that circle of grasping courtiers. But an impost of 
five hundred thousand livres exacted in October, 
when Salisbury was besieging Orleans, had not yet 
been collected ; the people could pay no more, and 
royalty must starve. 

Yolande of Aragon, the dauphin's mother-in-law, 
seems to have been the best man France had. She 
was commonly known by the courtesy title of Queen 
of Sicily ; and her husband, Louis of Anjou, uncle 
of the mad King Charles, had lost his life in his quest 
of an Italian throne. Her interests were one with 
those of France, and she missed no opportunity of 
dealing their common enemy a blow. Having allied 



62 JEANNE D'ARC 

herself with the Armagnacs, she married her daugh- 
ter to the dauphin, and her son Ren6, whom the aged 
Cardinal-Duke of Bar made his heir, to the daugh- 
ter and heir of the old Duke of Lorraine, hoping 
thus to erect some sort of barrier against the oncom- 
ing tide of English arms. She knew that Richemont 
was a better weapon for her purpose than any avail- 
able, and never ceased her plotting against La Trd- 
mouille, who only drank up the money needed for 
war, to reinstate the constable at court. She, also, 
had exchanged money for land in her dealings with 
the dauphin, and all Touraine, save Chinon, was 
now hers. This, with her provinces of Anjou and 
Maine, would be the first prey of England should 
Orleans fall; and with the wit to see that the in- 
spired child from Domremy might be turned to 
good account, she had, from the first, favored her 
mission. 

But Jeanne must fret her heart out with another 
delay, when she yearned to be gone on the work she 
was born to do ; and Louis de Coutes said he often 
saw her kneeling in prayer and weeping, as had the 
little choir boy in the crypt of the chapel at Vau- 
couleurs. She was treated with deference, women 
attended her at night and slept in her chamber, 
Coutes did her service by day, the king unbent to 
her as to a familiar friend, "persons of great estate 
came many days to visit her," the page observed ; 



CHINON 63 

yet alas, it was the old matter of question and argu- 
ment, incredulity and shilly-shally. But at Chinon, 
too, the sure factor of her goodness worked for her ; 
and Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy had 
tales to tell of that long journey from Vaucouleurs, 
of her unfailing courage and high spirit, of their 
miraculous freedom from molestation. In her wait- 
ing she prayed and worked, as she always did, and 
her labor now was to become a good man-at-arms. 
She refused to wear woman's dress until her mission 
should be accomplished; and admirmg eyes must 
have watched the graceful girl in her knight's array 
as she rode at quintain in the green meadows by the 
Vienne, and practised with crossbow and sword. 

One day the young Due d'Alengon came riding 
into Chinon. He had been shooting quail in the 
meadows about Saumur, when a messenger brought 
news: "A Maid has come to the dauphin, sent by 
God, she says, to raise the siege of Orleans and con- 
quer the English." And d'Alengon lost no time on 
the road back to court. 

He found Jeanne with the dauphin. 

"Sir, you are welcome," said she, when the king 
named him. ** The more here of the blood royal, the 
better." High greeting from a peasant lass to a 
prince of the blood. 

Young, handsome, loyal, d'Alengon was a bright 
picture of the chivalry which was the ideal borne by 



64 JEANNE D'ARC 

knighthood. At fourteen, he had married the young 
daughter of Charles d'Orleans, who had been captive 
in England since the battle of Agincourt. At fifteen, 
he had fought at disastrous Verneuil, and the Eng- 
lish had locked him up, a prisoner, at Crotoy on the 
northern coast. He had refused liberty without ran- 
som at the price of forswearing allegiance to his 
king, and after more than three years of captivity 
had sold land and jewels to collect the huge sum of 
two hundred thousand saluts d'or which England 
exacted. 

The next day, d'Alen^on saw Jeanne at the king's 
mass, and he remarked that when she met the dau- 
phin, she bowed low ; everyone seems to have noted 
her courtly manner. Afterward, Charles sent away 
his people, and took her, with La Trdmouille and 
d'Alengon, into his private room, where Jeanne again 
urged her mission before the king and his crafty 
favorite, while the fiery young duke listened and be- 
lieved. 

" Give over the realm to the King of Heaven," 
she cried, "and He shall do for you as He did for 
your fathers, and you shall be reinstated in all your 
rights.*' ** Live according to God's laws," she besought 
him. "Be clement, and good to all, rich and poor, 
friend and enemy." Counsel of a piece with St. Re- 
mi's admonition to the pagan king: "If you wish to 
reign, prove yourself worthy." 



CHINON 65 

They talked until dinner time, and afterward the 
dauphin went for a walk in the meadows, when 
Jeanne mounted her horse and went through her 
pretty play with the lance before him. 

*' She bore her harness as knightly as if she had 
done no other thing in all her life," swore d'Alengon, 
and then and there he gave her a present of a horse. 
The beautiful, eager girl, with more than man's cour- 
age and her gracious woman's manner, must have 
seemed to him the very flower of chivalry, a divine 
maid, to whom all men must bend the knee ; and as 
for her, she rated him her loyal comrade in all the 
changing days that followed. 

The duke wished to show this wonderful Maid to 
his wife and mother, who were living at the Abbey 
of St. Florent-l^s-Saumur, and in a few days she 
rode northward with him to the Loire, to pay the 
visit that was a bright interlude in her grave young 
life. " God knows the joy that the mother of the said 
d'Alengon, she and the daughter of Orleans, his wife, 
made of her," wrote old Perceval de Cagny, who be- 
longed to the duke's household and is one of the ear- 
liest and best of the Maid's chroniclers. The young 
duchess was " as humble and sweet toward everyone 
as lady could be," he added ; and the Maid had pledged 
service to her house. At Chinon she said many times 
that the rescue of Charles d'0rl6ans was part of the 
charge she had from God, and in case he was not 



66 JEANNE D'ARC 

released, "she would be at great pains to go to seek 
him in England." "And after those days," said 
Cagny, " she was nearer and more intimate with the 
Due d' Alen^on than any other ; and always in speak- 
ing called him *my good duke,' and not otherwise." 
But there was work to do, and after happy days passed 
in such company as fitted her bright girl's spirit, she 
must ride back across the bridges and through the 
meadows to Chinon and the court. 

Charles still hesitated and deferred. It would have 
seemed that the ardor and shining example of the 
Maid could have conquered even the degenerate 
weakness of the king and the vanity and self-seeking 
of his ministers ; but the weapons for such foes were 
not in her armory, and they never ceased to work for 
her discomfiture. Now the clergy, princes and doc- 
tors of the church, were sent to examine her ; and 
when they asked who had sent her to the dauphin, 
she had the one answer : 

"I have come from the King of Heaven." She 
added, " I have Voices and a Counsel which tell me 
what to do." And one day when she was dining with 
d'Alengon, she said to him : " These churchmen have 
examined me well ; but I know and can do more than 
I have told them." 

Nothing but good could be found in her ; but be- 
fore entrusting her with the forlorn hope of France, 
it might be well to have the judgment of highest 



CHINON 67 

appeal, and Charles decided to send her to Poitiers, 
where the French parliament and law courts now 
sat, and where the most learned men in the kingdom 
were gathered. 

" To Poitiers ? " she cried. " In God's name, I know 
I shall have my hands full ; but the saints will aid 
me. Let us be off ! " 

** For that was her manner of speaking," remarks 
the chronicler. If another dreary business of wise 
men and endless question lay before her, the sooner 
into it and out again the better. 



VI 

POITIERS 

STILL in page's dress, richer now than the 
sober black and gray of Vaucouleurs, Jeanne 
rode with the king and his retinue across the 
bridge and up the valleys to the splendid old city 
on its steep hill overlooking the green waters of the 
Clain. Nearby were the plains which had been 
mighty battlegrounds for north and south. Here 
Clovis, whom St. Remi had baptized, welded to- 
gether the kingdom of France by the blow he dealt 
the Goths ; and from the cathedral tower in the town 
had blazed by night the miraculous column of fire 
that guided him to the enemy. Here Charles Martel 
had fought the Saracens ; and early in this Hundred 
Years' War, the Black Prince had won a great vic- 
tory and made King John prisoner. For fourteen 
years now, Poitiers had been the capital of loyal 
France ; and here the Armagnac doctors of law and 
theology, who had fled from Paris and their northern 
benefices, held as poor state as their king. 

Jeanne was placed in the care of Jean Rabateau, 
the attorney general, and his wife, who occupied a 
great house in the middle of the town, the Hotel de 



POITIERS 69 

la Rose, so called from the family, Rosier, who owned 
it. Madame Rabateau said that every day after din- 
ner Jeanne was for a long time on her knees, and also 
at night, and that she often went into a little oratory 
in the house and prayed ; and in truth she had need 
of help to bear this new burden upon her patience. 
She had no formal trial, and day after day the doc- 
tors visited her at Rabateau's house, to weary her 
with the old questions. 

Why had she come to the king.? And once more 
the story was told, in her free, high manner. 

" While I was minding my sheep, a Voice came to 
me, telling me that God had great compassion for 
the people of France, and that I must go to France. 
I wept when I heard these words. But the Voice 
told me to go to Vaucouleurs, where I should find a 
captain who would send me safely to France and the 
dauphin, and that I must not be afraid. I did what 
the Voice commanded, and came to the dauphin 
without hindrance." 

Thereupon one Maitre Guillaume Aymery put his 
question : 

** You say that a Voice told you that God willed to 
deliver the people of France from the calamity in 
which they now are ; but if God wills to deliver them, 
it is not necessary to have soldiers." 

"In God's name," she returned, "the men-at-arms 
will fight and God will give the victory." 



70 JEANNE D'ARC 

"Wherewith," it is written, "Maitre Guillaume 
was content." 

Gobert Thibault, the king's equerry and a friend 
of Metz and Poulengy, came one day with Maitres 
Pierre de Versailles and Jean Erault. Lusty young 
men-at-arms such as he rather than doddering school- 
men were welcome to this girl, a born leader whose 
generalship was to be proved, who longed to be on 
the road with men at her back and the enemies 
of France before her. Coming forward to meet the 
visitors, she struck Thibault on the shoulder, cry- 
ing: 

" I would I had many men of such good will as 
you ! " 

Then she sat down on the end of a bench and 
asked what they wished. 

Maitre Pierre said that he had been sent to her 
from the king. 

" I can well believe you have been sent to question 
me," she remarked. 

" I know neither A nor B," was her answer to the 
usual argument. "But I am come from the King of 
Heaven to raise the siege of Orleans and to con- 
duct the king to Reims for his crowning and anoint- 
ing." Turning upon Maitre Jean Erault, she said: 
" Have you paper and ink ? Write ! " and she dictated : 
"To you, Suffolk, Classidas, and La Poule, I sum- 
mon you in the name of the King of Heaven to be 



POITIERS 71 

gone to England." A brave fanfare of words, whose 
echo the English should hear some weeks later at 
Orleans. 

■ Maitres Aymery and Versailles admitted that she 
replied with as much prudence as if she had been a 
trained clerk ; they marvelled at her answers, and 
believed that, taking into account her life and con- 
versation, there must be in her something divine. 
Maitre Jean recalled the visions of Marie d' Avignon, 
and believed firmly that Jeanne was that maiden who 
was to save France. But such weighty opinion was 
not to be published in a moment by the cautious 
mind of learning. 

"A fine spectacle," exulted Alain Chartier, "to 
see her dispute, a woman against men, ignorant 
against the learned, alone against so many adversa- 
ries." Yet sympathy might have lain oftener with 
the adversaries ; it was easy business for her nimble 
wit to play with their ponderous lunge and parry, 
and she got in many a keen thrust under the rusty 
armor of their schooling. 

" Hark you, there is more in God's books than 
in yours," she hurled against their heavy citing of 
chapter and verse. 

" It was a wondrous thing to hear her speak and 
answer," said Maitre Jean Magon. " I found nothing 
in her life but what was holy and good, and have no 
doubt she was sent from God." And the trend of 



72 JEANNE D'ARC 

opinion was in her favor, but the questioning went 
on, and now Brother Seguin of Limousin, was to take 
his turn. 

" What language does the Voice speak ? " he began 
in his clumsy _patots. 

**A better one than yours,'* flashed back. 

" Do you believe in God ? '* 

" In truth, more than yourself." 

"But God wills that you should not be believed 
unless some sign appear to prove that you ought 
to be believed," persisted the hardy Seguin. " We 
shall not advise the king to trust you and to risk an 
army on your simple word." 

Now, at length, the breaking-point was come. 

"In God's name, I am not come to Poitiers to 
show signs. My sign shall be the raising of the siege 
of Orleans. Send me there, with men-at-arms few or 
many, and I will show you the sign by which I am 
sent." And then, exalted by her eagerness and her 
faith, she declared : "And I tell you all four things 
that shall come to pass. First, the English shall be 
overcome and Orleans relieved ; second, the king 
shall be crowned at Reims ; third, Paris shall be re- 
stored to his dominion ; fourth, the Due d'0rl6ans 
shall return from England." 

"And I who speak," testified Brother Seguin 
many years later, " I have in truth seen these four 
things accomplished." And to his own discomfiture. 



POITIERS 73 

also, he bore witness as cheerfully as had the bell- 
ringer of Domremy in like case. 

At Poitiers, as always, the people loved her. That 
she was a marvel of goodness anyone could see ; and 
her beauty and spirit kindled new enthusiasm and 
hope. Probably, too, they felt no little satisfaction 
in the worsting of these hungry doctors who had set- 
tled upon Poitiers like locusts in a summer drought. 
Women of every rank visited her, and when they, 
too, asked why she never wore woman's dress, she 
said gently, " I think well it seems strange to you." 
Men went to see her, not believing in her mission, 
and came away saying, as did the women, "This girl 
is sent by God." She was yet to give the world 
her "sign ; " but shining through all her simple words 
and bearing was the potent personality which led 
men on the road to that sure goal. " My sign shall 
be the raising of the siege of Orleans," she reiter- 
ated ; and day by day she got the better of the wise 
men by her wit and shrewd good sense, no less than 
through unwavering persistence. "And always she 
was steadfast and kept to one purpose," said old 
Perceval de Cagny, as he looked back upon her life. 
Yet time was slipping into the past. Here she was 
fifty miles farther from Orleans, and nothing accom- 
plished in all these long weeks, — a few loyal friends 
earned and the love of many common people, profi- 
ciency gained in knightly exercise and the easy way 



74 JEANNE D'ARC 

of courts, but no definite advance had been made ; 
and always she had pressing upon her the foreknow- 
ledge that her time was short.- 

" I have but a year and little more," d'Alen^on 
had heard her more than once telling the king. " You 
should consider well how best to employ this year." 

He was employing it, apparently, in dawdling with 
his courtiers, while doctors plied their questions, 
people gaped for miracles, and the weeks passed 
that should bear added strength to the enemy. In 
all this time we must believe that she had had op- 
portunity to learn the exact situation at Orleans. 
She had seen the envoys sent by Dunois to inquire 
of her mission, and news must have been constantly 
trickling in from the city on which the eyes of France 
were fixed. She must have had many a discussion 
with d'Alengon and her other friends about the war. 
It was known that the English were not strong in 
numbers, that Burgundy had withdrawn his men, 
and that England was straining every nerve to 
strengthen her forces as soon as might be. It must 
be remembered that the Maid never trusted to mira- 
cle ; God would give the victory, but men must fight. 
Now was the time to strike, and the futile weeks 
lagged on. No wonder her temper was uncertain, 
and for the first time she failed in gracious dignity 
as she answered those exasperating Dryasdusts. 

At length the verdict was pronounced. For weeks 



POITIERS 7S 

the Maid had been questioned by all the wise men 
France could muster ; women had watched with sharp 
eyes keen for any fault ; she had been the daily com- 
panion of the king, the duke, the knights and ladies 
of the court; she had given the king a secret sign by 
which he should believe her ; word had come from 
Domremy of her spotless past ; she was found to be 
"a good Christian, living as a Catholic, never idle." 
In consideration, then, the doctors agreed, of " the 
extreme necessity and the great peril of the town, the 
king might make use of her help and send her to 
Orleans," and she should go with the army in hon- 
orable fashion. Copies of the verdict were scattered 
broadcast, to show that all had been done with due 
care. If things went wrong, the government should 
be blameless. 

So far, so good. France had given gracious permis- 
sion to save the realm ; now for the means to do it ; and 
weeks must pass before Orleans should be relieved. 

Jeanne returned to Chinon, soon setting out again 
for Tours, on her way to the seat of war, under the 
care, it would seem, of Regnault de Chartres, Arch- 
bishop of Reims and chancellor of the king, and the old 
soldier Raoul de Gaucourt. It had been weary wait- 
ing, yet only a few weeks ago she had entered Chinon 
in her humble page's suit to be met by insult from a 
common soldier and disheartening hesitation from the 
man she came to save. Now she rode forth accredited 



76 JEANNE D'ARC 

by king and council, looking like a handsome boy in 
her rich dress, full of the joy of living, with brave work 
ahead of her in the short time that should be hers. 
She loved fine clothes and a good horse and gay com- 
pany, yet she was the same pure-hearted, devout girl 
who but a few months before had been spinning by 
her mother's side in Domremy. The poisonous breath 
of courts could not for an instant cloud her simplicity 
and single-heartedness. Evil might lie at her feet; 
she looked beyond where the work lay which God 
had given her to do. 

We have no portrait of Jeanne save a head which 
tradition says was modelled when she was at Orleans. 
In this the face is small under its steel casque, but 
with strength, physical and spiritual, in its pure 
outline; and the wide arching brows and full eyes 
under delicate lids half dropped hold vision and 
judgment for their secret. The chin is softly rounded 
as any girl's should be, the lips richly curved and 
close shut. It is a picture of the sane, abounding 
health of youth, yet with a sealed silent look as of 
one who knew the will of God. And we know from 
the speech of those who saw her that she was beau- 
tiful. " She has the beauty which agrees," said one ; 
"her countenance breathes out joy," yet "her tears 
flow abundantly." Her words were few; "she ate 
little, and drank of wine still less." She had a mar- 
vellously sweet voice that could melt in pleading or 



POITIERS 'j'j 

swell out clear as a bell in her battle cry. She was 
tall and supple and well-developed in her youthful 
strength. 

Touraine was in the glory of its spring as she and 
her companions rode down the valley to the Loire. 
Foxgloves and bluebells were coming on in the 
meadows, fruit trees were laden with blossom, the 
whole world seemed full of life and beauty and hope. 
And the poet-duke, Charles d' Orleans, with home- 
sick thought on France, might have been writing in 
his English captivity, his lovely song of the season ; 

*' Dear spring her mantle casts away 
Of wind, of cruel cold, and rain, 
And now she robes herself again 
In sunbeam broidery fair and gay, 

And beast and bird must sing or say 
Each from his heart with might and main: 
Dear spring her mantle casts away." 



VII 

TOURS 

BLOIS was the city nearest Orleans held by 
France, and here Queen Yolande had made a 
base of supplies, and with the aid of Ambroise 
de L,or6 and Admiral de Coulent was collecting men 
and provisions to send up river to the besieged town. 
When the king received the sanction of his commis- 
sion to send the Maid to Orleans, he posted d'Alen- 
5on off to Blois to hasten the preparation of the 
convoy ; but everything had come to a standstill for 
lack of money, and d'Alen^on must return to the 
king. 

" Your convoy is ready," was his report. " It only 
remains to get money to pay for the provisions and 
men." And somehow Charles scraped together the 
necessary sum. At a pinch, he always seems to have 
been able to get a specified amount ; and now before 
he could fritter it away on his pleasure or his favor- 
ites, the money was sent off to Yolande. 

On the road to Blois, half way from Chinon, was 
Tours, at this time one of the busiest cities in the 
kingdom. By dint of gold and shrewd parleying, it 
had bought immunity from marauding men-at-arms ; 



TOURS 79 

and if a captain knocked at their gate, the citizens 
closed it in his face and conversed with him from the 
walls, politely requesting him to move on and giving 
as small a sum as might be to work for his persuasion. 
But when the English were making down toward the 
Loire, Tours had consented to receive a few soldiers 
for defense, allowing the captain and twenty of his 
men free lodgings at the castle, while the rest must 
pay hard cash at an inn. The townsmen plied their 
trades quietly in the midst of war. They wove silks 
and cloths of silver and gold ; they rivalled the arti- 
sans of Italy and Germany as smiths and armorers. 

In this busy hive, Jeanne stopped for her war equip- 
ment. She lodged at the house of Jean du Puy, whose 
wife was one of the queen's ladies. She was treated 
with all honor and deference, and by the king's order 
a military staff, or household, of three or four lances, 
was appointed for her service. Jean d'Aulon, a squire 
of Languedoc, was chosen for his wisdom and faith- 
fulness to guard her person. Jean de Metz was made 
her treasurer. " Many times I was obliged to hand 
out to her the money she gave for the love of God,'* 
said he. Bertrand de Poulengy was a third. Louis 
de Coutes was appointed as one of her pages, a boy 
named Raymond as another ; and by a strange chance, 
her chaplain was to link her with the old life again. 

In the ancient city of Puy-en-Velay, was the old- 
est church dedicated to the Virgin, whose image, the 



So JEANNE D'ARC 

Black Virgin, was held to have been carved from 
sycamore wood by the Prophet Jeremiah and brought 
from Egypt by St. Louis. When the Feast of the 
Annunciation and Good Friday fell on the same day, 
as in 1429, strange events were to be looked for, and 
in Holy Week a great rehgious festival was held at 
Puy, when pilgrims from all parts of Europe — lords, 
soldiers, doctors, peasants — flocked to the sacred 
shrine, many, for poverty or penance, on foot, staff 
in hand, begging their bread from door to door. 
Among them was Brother Jean Pasquerel, an Augus- 
tinian, who was reader in his convent near Tours ; 
and one day at Puy-en-Velay he met Isabeau Rom^e, 
mother of the Maid, and some of those who had 
ridden with her from Vaucouleurs. We may imagine 
that her brave, anxious mother heart had driven Isa- 
beau to this pilgrimage of a hundred leagues through 
the cold and storms of early spring, to seek some special 
grace for the extraordinary mission that was rousing 
France. Probably her two younger sons, Jean and 
Pierre, came with her, and returned to Tours with 
Brother Pasquerel and those companions of the Maid, 
as we know that they were at Blois and fought by her 
side in later days. No talk of drowning now ; Jacques 
d'Arc had become reconciled to his daughter's 
going soldiering. In this little company that met at 
Puy-en-Velay, each had his tale of old times or these 
wonderful new days. " You must go with us to see 



TOURS 8i 

her," the men urged Brother Pasquerel. " We will not 
leave you until you do." And at Tours they brought 
him one day to her lodgings in the house of Madame 
du Puy. 

"Jeanne, we bring you this good father," they 
said. "When you know him, you will love him much." 

"I have heard of you, and like you well," was her 
greeting. "Tomorrow I should like to confess my- 
self to you." 

The next morning he read mass for her, and from 
that time he was established as her almoner and 
chaplain ; and he, also, had stories to tell of her piety 
and humility. 

" So much did she fear God, that for nothing in 
the world would she displease Him," he said. "I 
firmly believe she was sent from God on account of 
her good works and her many virtues." 

"My work is my mission," he often heard her say. 
And when the people wondered at her, — "Never 
have such things been seen as these deeds of yours; 
in no book can one read of such things," she looked 
beyond at heaven's marvels, and said to them : " My 
Lord has a book in which no clerk has ever read, how 
perfect soever be his clerkship!" 

" And nearly every day," said Jean Pasquerel, "she 
confessed herself and she communicated often, and 
when she confessed, she wept." And he tells us a 
lovely story of her gentle spirit. 



82 JEANNE D'ARC 

"When she was in a neighborhood where there 
was a convent of the mendicant friars," — there was 
a great Benedictine monastery near Sully where five 
thousand pupils were said to be taught by the monks, 
— " she told me to remind her of the day when the 
children of the poor received the Eucharist, so that 
she might receive it with them." And we can see the 
Maid, in her rich dress or gleaming armor, kneeling 
among the hushed and wondering children, she who 
had been poor as they, and now with heart as pure and 
humble as any child among them, rode at the head 
of armies, and was the friend of prince and captain. 

Now the Maid must be armed for her work, and 
by the king's order a master armorer made her a suit 
of plain white steel, consisting of a helmet, a cuirass 
in four pieces, with covering for shoulders, hips and 
knees, jointed arm pieces, greaves, gloves, and shoes. 
In these days the armorers had reached the perfec- 
tion of their art, and the flexibility and grace of their 
steel work was well suited to Jeanne's lithe young 
form. Fine huques or hotippelandes^ the slashed coats 
worn by knights over their armor, were made for 
her use ; more than one has remembered that she 
loved her huques^ and let us hope she had her pick 
of rich silk and cloth-of-gold. She had chosen a horse 
from the royal stables, and a steel head piece and a 
high peaked saddle were furnished for him. Jean de 
Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy were also fitted out 



TOURS 83 

by the same armorer ; her suit cost a hundred livres, 
theirs together one hundred and twenty-five. 

But for her sword, Jeanne's thought went back 
to St. Catherine of Fierbois, patron of all captives, 
and the shrine hung with votive offerings where she 
had spent that last day before she rode into Chinon. 
Charles Martel, who had conquered the Saracens, 
had founded this Church of St. Catherine and laid 
his sword upon her altar, and she had a special care 
of all prisoners held by the enemies of France. Many 
stories were told of the saint's intervention for her 
suppliants ; sometimes she made them invisible, some- 
times she broke bonds, chains, locks. One Cazin du 
Boys, captive in 141 8, was put into a cage which was 
locked and bound with a great cord, and a Burgun- 
dian slept on the end of the rope; in which predica- 
ment, the prisoner addressed himself to St. Catherine 
of Fierbois, and soon in spite of rope, lock and Bur- 
gundian, walked forth a free man. Another, bound 
for a month in an English prison, made a vow to the 
saint before he slept, and awoke, still in chains, in his 
own house. Her grateful freedmen made many a pil- 
grimage to her shrine and offered up their cords and 
chains, their own armor, or, when they could get it, 
that of an enemy ; and now when the bonds of France 
itself were to be riven, her faithful pupil turned to 
her for the sword that should deal the blow. Here is 
Jeanne's story of the quest. 



84 JEANNE D'ARC 

" I sent to the Church of St. Catherine of Fier- 
bois to seek for a sword which was under the earth, 
not very deeply buried, behind the altar, — I think 
it was behind the altar. I knew by my Voice where 
it was. I wrote to the priests of the place that it 
might please them to let me have this sword, and 
they sent it to me. It was an armorer of Tours 
who went for it. It was rusty and upon it were five 
crosses. The priests rubbed it and the rust fell off 
quite readily. They made me a present of a scab- 
bard, those of Tours of another ; one was of crimson 
velvet, the other of cloth-of-gold. I had a third made 
of leather, very strong." 

Legend gathered quickly about this sword; the 
people called it V epie miraculeuse. It was said to 
be Charles Martel's own, and that when the priests 
took it from the ground the rust of centuries fell off 
and disclosed a gleaming blade. Yet for Jeanne, it 
was only a symbol of war ; she said she never wished 
to use it. 

Her great white standard she " loved better, forty 
times better " than her sword. " It was I myself who 
bore this banner when I attacked the enemy, to save 
killing anyone; for I never killed anyone." Hamish 
Power, a Scotch artist, painted her banner on 
precious white linen. On one face, it seems, was 
the figure of God seated on clouds, holding the 
globe, and on either side an angel knelt, one with a 



TOURS 85 

lily in his hand ; beyond were the words, " yhesus^ 
Maria!* On the reverse was a figure of the Virgin 
and a shield with the arms of France, supported by 
two angels. The personal blazon of the Maid was 
a white dove on azure ground, holding in his beak a 
scroll with the words : ** De par le Roy du del!' " In 
the name of the King of Heaven." She also seems 
to have had a smaller banner on which was painted 
the Annunciation. Hamish Power received twenty- 
five livres for the material of the two banners and his 
work. 

Jeanne always made friends among women, and 
now she had her first girl friendship since the days 
of Mengette and Hauviette at Domremy, with Heli- 
ote, the young daughter of Hamish Power; and 
somehow she managed to keep track of Heliote 
through the adventurous year that followed, and then 
bade the city fathers make her a fine marriage present 
from the treasury. 

For twenty-five years the proudest banners of 
France had been dragged in the dust. In the old 
times, the great oriflamme, royal standard of Clo- 
vis and Charlemagne, which had come down from 
heaven, had been carried before the king in battle 
and his enemies had fled before its magic ; but that 
had not seen the light since the early days of mad 
King Charles. Jeanne had called her poor dauphin 
the "oriflamme;" but no summons of chivalry could 



86 JEANNE D'ARC 

rouse him from his sloth, and it was she who was to 
be the rallying point of battle. "Take the banner of 
your Lord," her Counsel bade her ; and the standard 
of a peasant girl must break the pride of victorious 
England, and retrieve the honor of France, 



VIII 

BLOIS 

IT was not until 1439 that France had anything 
like a standing army. Then Charles established 
a little force of fifteen hundred lances, and with 
each "lance" went a company of six men; in 1445, 
a body of national infantry was formed, and then 
war should be "king's war," as in the thirteenth 
century there was "king's peace." But at this time 
each captain, with his company of men, fought as he 
pleased, — for France if he were sufficiently patriotic 
or well paid ; with his personal enemy, if it seemed 
more important to settle his private grudge. In this 
very year La Tr^mouille had been using money 
raised for the war to fight out his quarrel with the 
ousted constable, Richemont. Moreover, the people 
were not yet united in that common love of country 
which makes for strength ; they were more Norman, 
Breton, Gascon, than French. The crying need was 
for a great leader to knit together these frayed ends 
of the kingdom, to kindle the national pride of 
France which had been ebbing low under the weak 
reign of Charles and his mad father ; and the call 



88 JEANNE D'ARC 

was answered by the peasant of Domremy. What 
she saw to be done, she would do; what she would 
do, no one could prevent, and by the certainty of her 
genius, she drew men after her. The country was tan- 
gled in such a web by the weakness, incompetence and 
selfishness of king and councillors, that there seemed 
no escape ; but she roused France from its blind ac- 
quiescence, and woke the patriotism of those great 
commoners who in later years earned for the king 
the name of " Charles the Well Served.'* 

England was holding her advantage largely by the 
prestige of Agincourt and Verneuil ; she had not 
men enough to defend her conquests ; and except in 
Normandy, she remained in the country by suffer- 
ance of the Duke of Burgundy, whose policy it was to 
keep the fortunes of France and England sufficiently 
balanced to give room for his own ambition of build- 
ing up an independent state between France and 
Belgium. If Burgundy were to give any real support 
to the dauphin, English power would melt like mists 
in the sun ; and this seems to have been the one ex- 
cuse for the interminable negotiating of Charles's 
advisers which nearly cost him his kingdom. But the 
Maid was to transfer that moral strength of remem- 
bered victory, and prove that England could lose and 
France could win. 

No one of the brave French captains had the qual- 
ities of a great general. They were determined not 



BLOIS 89 

to "become English," as Jean de Metz had said; but 
they could never see the vital thing to do, and lacked 
initiative to make a concerted and determined attack 
upon the enemy. They were eager enough to fight, 
however, and now they came flocking into Blois to 
play their part in what was afoot. Among them was 
the Marechal de Rais, with a fine company from 
Anjou and Maine. He was said to be of " good under- 
standing, handsome person, and pleasing manners," 
and he had a great reputation for piety and learn- 
ing ; yet there is a tradition that he is the French 
original of Blue Beard, and many years after he was 
charged, whether justly or not, with dreadful crimes, 
and condemned to be burned at the stake. Mar6chal 
de Boussac and the terrible captains La Hire and Po- 
ton de Saintrailles, who had caught the king dining 
meagrely, came down from Orleans. La Hire was a 
nickname for the cruel and witty Gascon, fitienne de 
Vignolles. " If God were to turn man-at-arms. He 
would be a plunderer," declared La Hire ; and French 
troopers, as they used the new playing-cards, called 
the knave of hearts La Hire. He had been one of 
those soldiers of fortune to terrorize the country 
about Domremy. In 1423, he had fought against the 
Duke of Lorraine, and the next year he was fighting 
in Bar. He carved out his own fortune by putting his 
wits and his skill at the service of France, and he had 
joined the forces at Orleans and done good work on 



90 JEANNE D'ARC 

that disastrous day at Rouvray. Poton de Saintrailles 
had but just returned from an embassy to Burgundy. 
The Orl^anais, despairing of succor, and preferring 
a French overlord to an English, had sent to the 
duke, begging him to take their town under his pro- 
tection. He leaned to accepting the rich trust ; but 
when Bedford heard the scheme, he intimated that 
he was not pulling chestnuts out of the fire for Bur- 
gundy's benefit, and there was temporary coolness 
between the allies, which was something, at least, 
gained for France. 

Dunois commanded at Orleans, and was the best 
general the king had. He was son of that Louis 
d' Orleans, whom Jean sans Peur had murdered in 
the Paris streets, and half brother of the captive Duke 
Charles. He did not receive his title of Comte de 
Dunois until a later year, and now was known only 
as the Bastard of Orleans. He was twenty-six years 
old, a fine gentleman in manner and learning, adroit 
and fair spoken, a favorite in ladies' bowers who could 
do brave service on the battlefield. 

Late in April, Jeanne and her little military staff, 
under the charge of Regnault de Chartres and Gau- 
court, was ready to set out from Tours on the day's 
march of thirty-five miles to join the army at Blois. 
Three or four thousand troops were gathered there, 
and the great convoy of provisions and cattle and 
ammunition was ready. Although she held no offi- 



BLOIS 91 

cial command, she made her presence felt as promptly 
as In the audience hall at Chinon, and in her two 
or three days at Blois worked a miracle of order 
among those disorganized and disreputable men-at- 
arms. It has been well said that " it was a ludicrous 
and touching sight to see the sudden conversion of 
those Armagnac brigands." She had a banner painted 
with the Crucifixion, and at morning and evening 
Brother Jean Pasquerel must assemble the priests 
about it to sing anthems and hymns. Jeanne was 
there, but no soldier, who was not that day clean con- 
fessed, might join them. The multitude of priests 
who had come into camp, fleeing perhaps from their 
monasteries at the approach of the English, worked 
hard for daily bread shriving that army of hardened 
sinners, for the soldiers of the Maid must be in a fit 
state to wage war for her Lord the King of Heaven. 
She packed off dissolute camp followers, and promptly 
began a crusade against swearing. La Hire, who was 
as famous for picturesque profanity as for a brutal 
wit, was one of her first converts. " Lord God, I 
pray you to do for La Hire what La Hire would do 
for you if you were captain-at-arms and he were 
God," had been his prayer as he set forth to rape 
and plunder. When the Maid brought him up stand- 
ing, " Leave me something to swear by," he besought 
her ; and she, with her humorous commonsense, 
told him he might call upon his martin or staff. 



92 JEANNE D'ARC 

According to Perceval de Cagny, that was her own 
oath, " that and no other, ' Par mon 7nartin' " 

On the morning of Wednesday, April 27, the army 
of penitents set out for Orleans, thirty miles up the 
river. The whole world was bursting into flower, 
and they felt young and good and full of hope. As 
they crossed the great bridge to the south bank, the 
company of priests, bearing their banner and singing 
the Vem Creator, took the lead. They kept a slow 
pace to accommodate the unwieldy convoy of cattle 
and pigs and heavily laden wagons, and at sunset, 
with only a few miles covered, came to a halt ; the 
priests chanted their anthems, the chastened army 
joined in the hymns, and all lay down to rest in the 
open fields, the Maid sleeping in her armor, as she 
was always to do in campaigns when no women were 
near. They passed without molestation the fortified 
bridgeheads of Meung and Beaugency, cities on the 
north bank held by the English, and came out upon 
the heights of Olivet, two miles due south of Orleans. 
Here Jeanne could see the clustering spires of her 
city, whose watchmen in the towers would be pro- 
claiming that succor came at last ; and below flowed 
the Loire, a "capricious river," it is called, but royal 
in temper as in volume when it changes its course 
through the gentle, wooded country, and floods the 
low banks, or rushes into Orleans washing the houses 
breast high. Now, fed by the spring rains, it swept 



BLOIS 93 

smoothly over the channel of warm-colored sand, and 
marshalled its seven islands before the town of Or- 
leans, — islands, great or small, made and unmade at 
its pleasure, one but a sandbar thrown up in a day, 
another bowing and shimmering with rushes and 
willow. 

It had been Jeanne's wish to march her army and 
convoy under the nose of the great forts on the north 
side of the river, directly into the besieged town, 
flouting the enemy and heartening the citizens with 
her boldness. This would have been the wiser and 
easier way. Smaller forces than hers had marched 
from Blois through the Beauce, as the plains north 
of the river were called, and had entered the city 
unmolested; for the English troops were barely suf- 
ficient to hold the forts, and men and ammunition 
were being saved for defence until promised rein- 
forcements should arrive and a final attack could be 
made upon the town, which was regarded as ripe 
fruit ready to fall when the tree was shaken. Whe- 
ther the French captains wilfully deceived the Maid 
or not, they had their own scheme of action which 
they kept to themselves. It must be remembered that 
she had no military standing, and they were bound 
in no way to confer with her. She was being " led 
with the army to Orleans in honorable fashion," by 
literal reading of the royal decree. *' Lead me against 
Talbot and the English and into Orleans," she had 



94 JEANNE D'ARC 

demanded ; and this they were doing in their own 
way. 

Their plan was to march through the Solonge, the 
district south of the Loire, thus avoiding Meung and 
Beaugency and the strongest English forts which lay 
to the west and north of the town. They meant to 
take the convoy six miles beyond Orleans, where it 
could be embarked opposite their town of Checy and 
taken down by boats which the citizens should send 
upstream to meet them. Thus they should approach 
the city on the east side, where there was only one 
fort, St. Loup, which the burghers could divert by 
an attack while the boats crept by under shadow of 
a wooded island. The plan was carefully worked out ; 
but unluckily when they arrived opposite Orleans, the 
wind was blowing dead down stream, and boats could 
make no headway against wind and current to the 
rendezvous at Ch^cy. In this predicament, Dunois 
crossed the river to confer with the captains, but he 
was first to settle with the promised deliverer of Or- 
leans. The Maid, bruised and weary after her night 
in armor, and outraged at the trick which she believed 
to have been played upon her, was in no gentle humor. 
As Dunois stepped to land, she met him pointblank. 

"Are you the Bastard of Orleans?" 

" I am, and right glad of your coming," was the in- 
gratiating answer. 

" Is it you who gave counsel that I should come 



BLOIS 95 

here by this bank of the river, and that I should not 
go directly where Talbot and the English are?" 

Suavity was no buffer against such attack, and 
Dunois was put to his trumps. Evidently the Angelic 
One, as the people were already beginning to call her, 
had a pretty temper of her own. 

" Yes, I and others wiser than I gave that counsel, 
believing it to be the better and safer way.'* 

"In God's name," cried the Maid, "the counsel of 
my Lord is safer and wiser than yours. You thought 
to deceive me, and you deceived yourselves; for I 
bring you better succor than ever came to knight or 
city, because it is succor from the King of Heaven. 
It comes not from me, but from God Himself, Who, 
at the prayer of St. Louis and St. Charlemagne, has 
had compassion on the city of Orleans, and will not 
suffer the enemy to hold the body of the duke and 
his town also." 

And even as she spoke, the wind veered as if by 
a miracle, and blew so sharply upstream that slack 
sails filled and each boat towed two behind it up to 
Chdcy, where they moored for the night, while the 
army and convoy marched along the river bank. But 
the day's vexations were not yet ended for the girl 
who had planned that smooth triumphal entry into 
the waiting town. 

Many provisions had been, perforce, left behind at 
Blois, and the captains announced their purpose of 



96 JEANNE D'ARC 

returning at once for them. But this was not to the 
mind of the Maid; when the English were driven 
from their forts, there would be time enough for Blois 
and more convoys, and, moreover, she did not trust 
the staying power of her penitents, and wished to 
march them into the town at the top of their enthu- 
siasm, when they were ready for any deed at arms. 
If they went back to Blois, she doubted their return ; 
the captains had but now deceived her. But if go they 
must, she would go with them. This, however, did 
not fall in with Dunois's wish; indeed, he dared not 
return to Orleans without her. The people were im- 
patient to hail their deliverer, and wrought up as they 
were, would bear disappointment in an evil way. 

"I beg you to cross the river and enter the town, 
where many are longing for you," he besought her. 

" But I cannot abandon my followers and my men- 
at-arms, who are well confessed, penitent and of good 
will," she objected, and Dunois went to the captains. 

"I beseech you, for the welfare of the king, to allow 
her to enter Orleans at once," he said to them. " And 
do you take the army back to Blois and return forth- 
with to Orleans by the north road, through the 
Beauce." 

With this promise, the Maid consented to trust 
her army to the care of the priests, and Jean Pasquerel 
must take her precious standard to keep before their 
eyes the guerdon of glory in store for faithful soldiers 



BLOIS 97 

of her Lord. Then she crossed to Chdcy with Dunois, 
La Hire, Boussac, her brothers, and her little com- 
pany. She was received by a rich townsman, Guy de 
Cailly, and passed the night at his manorhouse of 
Reuilly. There is a rather lame tradition that he is 
the only one who ever shared the vision of her saints. 
The next morning, April 29, the convoy was em- 
barked and taken down the river, and the plan carried 
without a hitch: the citizens made a diversion be- 
fore St. Loup, the boats slipped by the island, and 
were safely unloaded at the southeast water gate. 
And that night the Maid and her company came 
down from Ch^cy and under cover of darkness en- 
tered Orleans by the Burgundy Gate. Attended by 
troops of torchbearers, armed cap-a-pie, and mounted 
on a great white horse, she rode through the city 
with Dunois at her side, and nobles and squires, cap- 
tains and men-at-arms in her train. By the light of 
flaring torches, the people of Orleans saw their Maid, 
and wondered at the martial figure in its bright armor, 
the pure, small face under its steel casque, the clear 
voice, the gracious manner; and they had "such joy 
as if God Himself had descended among them ; and 
not without cause, for they had suffered many things, 
and what is worse, had great fear that they would 
not be succored and would lose their lives and goods. 
But now they were already comforted as if the siege 
had been raised by the divine virtue which dwelt, they 



98 JEANNE D'ARC 

had been told, in this simple Maid whom they re- 
garded most lovingly, men, women, and little chil- 
dren." **She smiled at them," the chronicle goes on 
to say, " made a sign of her hand that they should 
leave her free, and said to all in her sweet woman's 
voice that they were good Christians and that God 
was going to save them." 

But there was such eagerness to touch her or even 
her horse, that a torch was crowded against her 
banner. "Whereupon," it is said, "she struck spurs 
to her horse and wheeling lightly on the standard 
crushed out the flame, as if she had long followed 
the war." 

Then she and her company, the captains and sol- 
diers, and the whole city, went to the Cathedral of 
St. Croix to return thanks for the marvel of God's 
goodness, and afterward they rode on to the great 
house of Jacques Boucher, treasurer of the duke, near 
the Regnart Gate in the west wall, where the Maid 
and her company were lodged. " And not one," it is 
written, " returned to his home after that evening, 
who did not feel that he had within him the strength 
of ten men." And Jeanne slept with little Charlotte, 
the nine year old daughter of her host. 



IX 

ORLfiANS 

FOUR great gates, flanked by their towers, 
gave upon the roads that led from Orleans : 
to the west, the Regnart Gate and the road 
to Blois ; to the north, the Bannier and Paris Gates, 
leading to the Paris road ; to the east, the Burgundy 
Gate and the old Roman road which passed Checy 
and cut through the country to Autun. But now 
English forts dammed the way at gunshot distance 
from the walls. From the river northward to the 
Paris road, were five bastilles, connected by ditches 
and earthworks : St. Laurent, where Talbot had his 
camp, Croix-Boissee on the Blois road, London, Pres- 
soir-Arc, and St. Pouair or Paris. Then, to the north- 
east, the great forest of Orleans crept down nearly to 
the city walls, and a mile and a half beyond the Bur- 
gundy Gate, near a ruined church, was the bastille of 
St. Loup, which commanded the Loire and the road 
to Checy ; while on the south, the walls of Orleans 
rose directly from the river, and the famous old 
bridge, with its nineteen arches and buildings and 
fortifications, linked the shores of the Beauce and 
Solonge. But when the Tourelles had fallen to Salis- 



100 JEANNE D'ARC 

bury, the citizens made a new bridgehead of the lit- 
tle fortress of the Belle-Croix, and broke the three 
arches between it and the Tourelles, which now 
stood isolated above the river, connected only by a 
drawbridge with its strong boulevard upon the left 
bank, where, a few paces farther to the south, the 
English had fortified a ruined Augustinian monas- 
tery, which sat at the foot of the road to Olivet. To 
the east of the Augustins, was the boulevard of St. 
Jean le Blanc, guarding the road to Jargeau, a town 
twelve miles up the river held by England. To the 
west the fort of St. Priv6 commanded the Solonge 
road to Blois, and with a fort on the Isle of Charle- 
magne, made a safe crossing to Talbot's camp at 
St. Laurent. 

Orleans held but little more than a hundred acres 
within its walls, and was crowded to suffocation with 
the influx of fifteen thousand people from its wrecked 
suburbs and the companies of men-at-arms. As " the 
siege grew long and victuals short," discomfort and 
mean rations were doing their work ; rumors of at- 
tack without and treachery within held nerves on the 
rack, and men were of the temper "rather to lose 
their lives by wholesale on the point of the sword 
than to retail them out by famine." The townsmen 
claimed the privilege of guarding their walls, and 
submitted to the domination of the visiting captains 
with an ill grace; and now, since the chivalry of 



ORLEANS loi 

France had accomplished nothing for them in seven 
months, they gladly ranged themselves under the 
banner of the Maid. All their hope of deliverance lay 
in her, and for her they opened their pockets as well 
as their hearts. They paid for oats and stabling for 
her horses, wine and fish for herself ; they put up 
her two brothers at an inn, and fitted them out with 
hose and shoes, and gave them spending money. 
They reimbursed one Jean Lecamus for feeding 
"those companions who had come to find the Maid.'* 
Who these visitors were we do not know ; men from 
Chinon or Poitiers, perhaps, who had been so won to 
her purpose that they followed when they could to 
join her company. And neither then nor in all the 
centuries since has Orleans forgotten its debt to the 
Maid sent by God for its deliverance. 

No doubt the burghers would have been glad to 
put her at their head and march out early next morn- 
ing against the enemy, and we can believe that 
Jeanne would have made good account of their fer- 
vor. Louis de Coutes says that she went to seek 
Dunois, and returned from the interview vexed be- 
cause the captains wished to make no attack that 
day. Their argument was that they must await the 
return of the army ; and perhaps they, too, had some 
misgivings about that return, for Boussac and a 
few men had left in the night to ride down to Blois. 
But La Hire, Florent d'llliers, other knights and 



102 JEANNE D'ARC 

squires of the garrison, and some citizens, rode out in 
the morning and made a grand escarmouche before 
the outposts of St. Pouair on the Paris road. The 
enemy were forced back upon the bastille, and men 
were shouting for straw and faggots to fire the fort, 
when the English " made terrible cries and put them- 
selves in battle array," and the Frenchmen retreated ; 
but a mighty pother had been made with cannon and 
culverin and bombardes^ and there were killed and 
wounded and captured on both sides. 

Meantime the Maid, like a good captain-at-arms, 
was summoning the enemy to surrender before at- 
tack ; and a long letter, which seems to have been 
an expansion of that flare of words flung out at Jean 
Erault at Poitiers, was sent to Talbot. It was dated 
"Tuesday in Holy Week," or March 22, 1429. She 
calls on the King of England and on Bedford, who 
styles himself Regent of France, and on all the cap- 
tains who call themselves lieutenants of Bedford, to 
yield up the keys of the fair towns which they have 
despoiled. If they will not obey, she will make them, 
whether or no. " For she is come in the name of God 
to drive you out of France ; and the Maid promises 
you well that if you heed not, she will make so great 
a hahay that for a thousand years the like has not 
been seen in France. . . . And you, archers, com- 
panions-at-arms, gentle and simple, who are before 
Orleans, depart into your country, in the name of 



ORLEANS 103 

God ; and if you do not this, beware of the Maid and 
the hurt that will come to you. Hold not to your 
notion that you will have France from the King of 
Heaven, Son of Holy Mary, for it shall be held by 
King Charles, the true heir, to whom God has given 
it, who shall enter Paris in fair company. . . . Wil- 
liam de la Pole, Count of Suffolk, John, Lord Tal- 
bot, and Thomas, Lord Scales, lieutenants of the 
Duke of Bedford, you who call yourself Regent of 
France for the King of England, the Maid prays 
you not to destroy yourselves. If you will heed her, 
you may go with her to a place where France will 
do the fairest deed ever done for Christendom.'* And 
so she begs her enemy to save himself while there is 
yet time. 

Two heralds bore the letter to Talbot, who sent 
back one with the promise that the other should be 
burned, and they called the Maid cow-girl, bade her 
mind her cattle, and laughed at her summons. The 
person of a herald was sacred by all the usages of 
war, but this man from the Armagnac witch could 
have no rights, and should be burned for his mis- 
tress, yet they wished to ask the University of Paris 
for an opinion on this nice point; but war was to be 
shaken from its accustomed leisurely pace, and the 
Maid was to settle the matter long before that cum- 
bersome machinery of the law should get under way. 
Yet the English defiance had a note of fear in its 



104 JEANNE D'ARC 

bravado, and no doubt it was believed from this time 
that France had supernatural aid. What Englishman 
could see heaven and the right on the side of an en- 
emy, and the Witch of the Armagnacs, an emissary 
of the devil, loomed large in the imagination of fight- 
ing Godons. " From that hour," says Dunois, " the 
English, who up to then could,,! affirm, with two 
hundred of their men rout eight hundred or a thou- 
sand of ours, were unable with all their power, to 
resist four or five hundred French, and they took 
refuge in their forts, whence they dared not come 
forth."' 

On Sunday, May i, Dunois and d'Aulon, the 
Maid's squire, set out for Blois to hurry the lagging 
army. There was just cause for fear that the men, 
without the inspiration of the Maid's leadership, 
would find it more convenient not to return to Or- 
leans, and her army, having taken its pay and eaten 
up the provisions, would melt away again in a trickle 
of roving marauders. The Maid, accompanied by La 
Hire and other captains, went out to cover their de- 
parture, and then, with her escort, she rode through 
the city. The people were so eager to see her that 
they had almost broken down Jacques Boucher's 
door. They " could not have enough of the sight of 
her." "In truth," they said, as they watched her ride, 
**she holds herself as freely as if she had been a 
man-at-arms following war from her youth." 



ORLEANS 105 

Then she rode out the Regnart Gate, and ap- 
proached the bastille of the Croix-Boissde, near the 
great camp of St. Laurent. On the way she met a 
company of English, and to them, again, she gave 
their warning: 

" Give yourselves up and save your lives. Return 
to England, in the name of God, or I will do you 
great harm." 

"Would you have us surrender to a woman?" 
scoffed the Bastard of Granville, to whom, no doubt, 
this seemed but idle boasting ; and he and his escort 
mocked the men with her as a poor lot to follow in 
the train of a witch. 

There could be no question of an attack until Du- 
nois should return ; and on Monday, Jeanne, followed 
by the captains and soldiers, and all Orleans, went 
out to have a nearer look at the enemy's forts. No 
Frenchman was afraid with the Maid riding on be- 
fore, while every Godon had his look at the Armagnac 
witch as she made her leisurely circuit of the city. 
Unmolested, she led her people back through the 
gates, and then she went to vespers in the cathedral. 
During these days of waiting, she did everything in 
her power to give the people fresh courage and hope ; 
"and in all the city," says the chronicle, "they did 
honor to no other." 

One day at the cathedral, Maitre Jean de Magon, 
"a very wise man," said to her : 



io6 JEANNE D'ARC 

" My child, have you come to raise the siege ? " 

" In the name of God, yes." She knew well wise 
men and their questions. 

'* My child, they are strong and well entrenched, 
and it will be a great thing to put them out." 

" Nothing is impossible to the power of God," was 
her response. And we may suppose that, like Doctor 
Aymery of Poitiers, Jean de Ma^on was " well con- 
tent." 

On Tuesday, the third, the garrisons of Montargis, 
Gien and Chateau Regnard came marching into the 
town, and news was received of the army from Blois. 
At dawn next day Jeanne, with La Hire and five 
hundred men, rode out to meet it. The captains were 
coming, with a smaller force, by the northern route 
which Jeanne had wished to take, and it was found 
to be no difficult matter to make a ddtour around the 
line of forts at the west of the city, skirt the forest 
beyond St. Pouair, and enter either by the Paris or 
Burgundy Gate. The grain in the convoy was prob- 
ably sent by boat ; but the Maid and her escort met 
the main body of troops, led by Rais, Boussac and 
Dunois, on the border of the forest ; and after nearly 
a week of useless delay, she was to enter the city as 
she had, at first, planned. Priests, chanting the Veni 
Creator^ led the van, as at Blois ; and Brother Jean 
Pasquerel, bearing the Maid's banner, was at their 
head. Silently, the garrison of the great bastille of 



ORLEANS 107 

St. Pouair watched the long line of churchmen and 
cavaliers, wagons and cattle, file by at slowest foot 
pace. Not a shot was fired, not a Godon ventured 
from his fort, and by noon the army was safely 
housed in Orleans. 



X 

ST. LOUP AND THE AUGUSTINS 

AS d'Aulon and the Maid were dining that 
Wednesday, Dunois came to them with a 
rumor that Fastolf's army, with men and 
provisions for the English forts, was approaching. 

"Bastard, Bastard," cried the Maid, bubbling with 
joy that action must come at last, "in the name of 
God, I charge you that so soon as you know of the 
coming of Fastolf, you do let me know. If he pass 
without my knowing it, I promise you — I will have 
your head ! " 

"Of that," returned courtly Dunois, "I have no 
fear. I will surely let you know." 

Then the Maid, like a good soldier, rested while 
she could, and Madame Boucher slept beside her. 
D'Aulon, overdone with the long ride to and from 
Blois, lay down on a couch in the same room. But 
before he could sleep, the Maid suddenly woke, and 
springing to her feet, cried out : 

"In the name of God, my Counsel tells me I 
should attack the English — whether their forts or 
this Fastolf, I know not," and she rushed from the 
room. 



ST. LOUP AND THE AUGUSTINS 109 

" Ha, worthless boy ! " she called to Louis de 
Coutes. "So you could not tell me the blood of 
France is being shed ! My horse ! my horse ! " 

" Where are those who should arm me ? " she cried, 
running back. " The blood of our people stains the 
ground ! " And as d'Aulon and Madame Boucher and 
little Charlotte got her into her harness, the quiet of 
the street was broken by people running to and fro 
and shouts of " The enemy ! the enemy ! We are 
lost!" 

The Maid leaped into the saddle, as Louis brought 
up her horse. 

" My banner ! " she cried, and the page handed it 
to her from her chamber window. Then she set off 
at full speed for the Burgundy Gate, striking sparks 
from the pavement as she went, while d'Aulon armed 
and followed as he could. 

"After her ! " cried Dame Boucher, and Louis de 
Coutes, also, overtook her as they neared the gate. 

The way was blocked by wounded straggling back 
to the city. As they met the first, borne by his com- 
panions, the Maid stopped. 

" Who is he ? " she asked in her gentle voice. 

"A Frenchman," was the sufficient answer. 

" I can never see French blood flow that the hair 
does not rise upon my head," she shuddered, and she 
had time to sorrow for that sad procession of men 
undone. 



no JEANNE D'ARC 

Neither Jeanne nor d'Aulon had known that an 
attack upon St. Loup was planned. All had been 
quiet in their remote quarter of the city, and they 
had had no warning until the Maid had sprung, half 
dazed, from her sleep, roused by the summons to act, 
she knew not where. Perhaps only a skirmish was in 
order to create a diversion that the grain might safely 
pass down to the water gate, as on the twenty-ninth. 
But now the Maid was on the ground, her banner was 
welcomed with a great shout, back the men turned 
to the attack, over the palisades they surged, and 
the English had to fall back upon the ruined church. 
Their captain, brought to bay, ofiFered to surrender 
on ransom. 

" We will have you on our own terms," cried the 
Maid. 

Meantime, Talbot had marched out from St. Lau- 
rent, meaning to join forces with St. Pouair, and 
skirting the city, come to the rescue of his garrison 
of St. Loup ; but the alarm bell rang out in Orleans, 
Boussac and six hundred men sallied out from the 
Paris Gate to block the way, and as Talbot stopped 
to confer with his captains, a great flame rose from 
St. Loup to tell him all was over, and he returned to 
his quarters. 

The bastille burned, but the church still held out. 
It was carried at last, and of the brave little gar- 
rison of one hundred and fifty, none escaped. Some 



ST. LOUP AND THE AUGUSTINS in 

prisoners were taken who had thrown priests' vest- 
ments over their armor. 

" The blood of churchmen should not be spilled," 
said Jeanne jestingly to her men, and she had them 
marched off to her quarters. 

This was the Maid's first battle, and not for a mo- 
ment had there been question of who was leader 
there. It needed no sorcery for men to know their 
master, and her whole magic lay, as she herself said, 
in riding forward, banner in hand, and crying out : 
"In the name of God follow me ! " She planted her 
standard in the thick of the fight, and informed the 
enemy they should be hers whether or no. " lis song 
nostres ! lis song nosires I" was the rallying cry for 
her men. 

The victors rode back to Orleans, and "gave thanks 
to God in all the churches by hymns and devout ori- 
sons, to the sound of bells which the English could 
well hear.'* Jeanne lamented for those who had gone 
unshriven to their account, and forthwith made her 
confession to Brother Jean Pasquerel, commanding 
him to invite the whole army to do likewise. " And 
within five days," she said to him, " the siege will be 
raised." 

It had needed only this victory to buttress enthu- 
siasm with solid devotion and trust. La Hire and his 
friend Poton, Rais and Boussac, were ready to fol- 
low wherever she might lead ; the burghers, who had 



112 JEANNE D'ARC 

been guarding their walls, swore that never again 
would they be left behind. Every man felt that he 
was equal to any ten Godons, and that France never 
could lose again. 

The next day was the Feast of the Ascension, and 
no fighting was done. The Maid would have followed 
up her victory by an attack on St. Laurent, but the 
captains pleaded the sanctity of the day, and took 
time for their accustomed deliberations. She con- 
fessed and took the Sacrament for reverence of the 
festival, and exhorted her men to do likewise. She 
meant to lead no sinners into battle, and she had 
never ceased her war on blasphemy and vice. One 
day, hearing a great lord rip out an oath in an Or- 
leans street, she went up and took him by the 
shoulder. 

"Ah, sir," said she, "do you deny our Lord and 
Master ? En nom D^, unsay your words before I leave 
you!" 

Meantime the captains were holding their council 
at the house of Cousinot, chancellor of Orleans. It 
was decided to feign an attack next morning on St. 
Laurent, which should draw off the men from the 
Solonge forts to aid their comrades, when the main 
body of the French could easily overcome the weak- 
ened garrisons of St. Jean le Blanc, the Augustins, 
and the boulevard of the Tourelles. There was always 
rivalry between the militia of Orleans and the men- 



ST. LOUP AND THE AUGUSTINS 113 

at-arms, and now the burghers, led by the Maid, were 
to be sent out against St. Laurent, while the glory of 
the day was to be saved for the chivalry. They had 
reason to distrust the biddableness of the Maid, how- 
ever, and they meant to tell her only half the story. 
Then Ambroise de Lor^ was sent to summon her to 
the council, and the chancellor told her that next 
morning she was to make her attack upon St. Lau- 
rent ; but her acuteness told her something was with- 
held. Walking angrily up and down the room, she 
demanded to know the whole truth. 

" I can keep a greater secret than that," said she. 

Dunois, seeing that the game was up, came forward 
with his soothing word. 

** Jeanne, do not be angry. One cannot tell every- 
thing at once. What the chancellor has told you has 
been decided; but if the men on the Solonge bank 
come to aid those in the great fort, we have planned 
to cross the river and fall upon those who are left 
there. It seems to me that this decision is wise." 

The Maid professed herself satisfied, but the plan 
was to quite wonderfully miscarry. Perhaps the secret 
leaked out, or it may be that Jeanne only seemed to 
assent ; certainly, it was little to her taste to lead a 
sham attack, and the burghers had vowed to follow 
where she might go. 

That evening, Jeanne made her last summons to 
the English, of the same tenor as the others. "I shall 



114 JEANNE D'ARC 

write no more;" and below were the words " Jhestis^ 
Maria!' and the signature, "Jehanne the Maid." 
She added: "I should send my letter to you more 
worthily, but you keep my messengers ; you have kept 
my herald Guyenne. If you will send him back to me, 
I will return some of your people taken at St. Loup, 
for they were not all killed." 

Then she went out to the Belle Croix at the end 
of the bridge, and attaching her letter to an arrow, 
bade an archer shoot it across into the Tourelles. 

" Read ! Here is news for you ! " the clear voice 
called. 

"News from the Armagnac wench!" shouted the 
English. " Cow-girl, witch ! Only let us catch you, 
and you shall burn ! " 

Jeanne broke down and wept at the insults, like the 
child she was, and then calmed herself. "I have had 
tidings from my Lord," she said, and her defiance 
rang back to stern Sir William Glasdale. 

"You lie!" she cried. " I am a good girl who tells 
the truth. The English must go, but you, Classidas, 
shall never see it, for you shall be dead." And she 
took her way back to the city. 

On Friday, May 6, Jeanne rose at dawn, and made 
her confession to Jean Pasquerel, who said mass for 
her and her little company. The men of the city were 
also up and armed, ready to follow the Maid. There 
was no talk of St. Laurent, and they made for the 



ST. LOUP AND THE AUGUSTINS 115 

Burgundy Gate, which they found closed and guarded 
by a squad of men under Gaucourt ; but the towns- 
men were in no mood for interference, and were 
ready to fight their way out. 

Jeanne rode up to the old commander, and waiting 
for no explanation, cried : 

" You are a bad man to prevent these people from 
going. But whether you will or no, the men shall go, 
and they will prevail as before." 

Gaucourt stood in peril of his life, and with the 
ready wit of a soldier, he threw wide the gate, shouting : 

" Come on, I will be your captain ! " 

Out the people went, and embarked at the south- 
east water gate for the He aux Toiles, whence a 
swinging bridge of two boats should set them down 
on the south bank near St. Jean le Blanc. But when 
the English captain saw them coming, he abandoned 
his fort, and retired to the bastille of the Augustins, 
opposite the Tourelles. 

Swept away with enthusiasm and their merry de- 
sire to steal a march on the gentlefolk who would 
have had this plum for themselves, the militia stopped 
only to sack the abandoned fort, and then took their 
way to the Augustins. But they were no match for 
the disciplined English, who advanced to meet the 
disorganized rabble as it came pouring down the road, 
and the burghers fled pell-mell back to the island. 

The Maid and La Hire, at the moment, were bring- 



ii6 JEANNE D'ARC 

ing their horses over by boat. Seeing the rout, they 
mounted and with lances couched, set out at a gallop. 
Drawing everyone after them, they rallied their men 
and drove the English back to the Augustins, where, 
however, the French were again repulsed. Jeanne 
rode back and forth, encouraging her men, urging on 
stragglers. The knights were slow in coming, but at 
last their standards were seen on the island, the ar- 
tillery came up, and Maitre Jean the Lorrainer, with 
his famous culverin. 

D'Aulon was guarding the landing with a squad 
of men, among them a valiant Spaniard, Alphonse de 
Partada. A big Frenchman of the company set out 
toward the fort ; d'Aulon called him back, but he per- 
sisted in going. Partada shouted that as good men 
as he were obeying orders ; whereupon the French- 
man said it would not be he. With high words as to 
which was the better man an(J who knew his duty, 
they both set off at a great pace for the palisade, 
where they were confronted by a huge Englishman, 
who stood in the open gateway, laying about him in 
every direction with great blows of his battle-axe. 
D'Aulon and the others had followed perforce, and 
as they came up to the gateway, Maitre Jean the 
Lorrainer brought down the Englishman with a shot 
from his culverin. The Frenchman and Spaniard 
proved their valor by winning the passage together, 
the French turned once more to the assault, and the 



ST. LOUP AND THE AUGUSTINS 117 

fort was soon surrounded by the artillery and four 
thousand men. 

In the thick of the fight was the Maid, standard 
in hand. 

"Enter boldly," she cried, and the palisade was 
taken. 

The English had entrenched themselves in the 
ruined buildings of the monastery ; but one by one 
they were killed or driven out, a few making their 
escape to the Tourelles, and the fort was given over 
to the flames, which again gave news to the enemy 
that England was defeated. Great deeds at arms had 
been done on both sides, and victory was hard bought ; 
the sun had set, and in the growing darkness, the 
Tourelles loomed large to the French captains. They 
said it would take a month to reduce such a place as 
that. 

" By my staff, I will have it tomorrow,*' said the 
Maid, "and will return to the city by way of the 
bridge." And she insisted on sleeping here on the 
hard won ground that she might push the attack on 
the Tourelles in the early morning. 

They besought her to return to the city. She had 
been wounded in the foot by a chausse-trape, and was 
worn with fatigue ; she would be in no condition to 
fight next day after a night spent in her armor. 

" Shall we leave our men .? " she said. But finally 
she consented to cross the river. 



ii8 JEANNE D'ARC 

The archers and most of the militia, to guard 
against night attack, bivouacked in the fort, while the 
captains and squires went over to the city. 

It was a Friday, but tonight Jeanne needed food, 
and she broke her fast. While she was eating, one of 
the knights came to tell her that the captains were 
in council, and had decided that, with all gratitude 
for the victories won, it seemed wiser to await more 
reinforcements from the king ; the town was well 
victualled, it did not seem expedient that the attack 
should be resumed. 

** You have been to your counsel," flashed back the 
Maid, " and I have been to mine. My Counsel, which 
is of God, will prevail, and yours shall perish.'* Then, 
turning to Jean Pasquerel, she said : 

" Rise tomorrow morning even earlier than today. 
Do your best to keep near me, for tomorrow I shall 
have yet more to do, and much greater things." And 
she reminded him of a prophecy she had made two 
weeks before, which we see recorded in a letter dated 
April 22: "For tomorrow blood will flow from my 
body, above the breast." 



XI 

THE EIGHTH OF MAY 

ON Saturday, therefore," says Jean Pasquerel, 
"I rose very early, and celebrated mass.'* 
On that day, truly, the Maid was to do 
more than she had ever done, since she had made 
her great decision to succor France. No gallant act 
of her life could surpass that. 

During the night boats had been plying back and 
forth, carrying wine and provisions to the men in the 
Augustins and engines of war for the assault; and 
farther down the river, the English, also, were active, 
for in the morning it was discovered that the garri- 
son of St. Priv^ had destroyed their fort and retired 
across the river to St. Laurent. It is incredible that 
Talbot deliberately abandoned the Tourelles to its 
fate ; probably he thought the fort could hold out 
until Fastolf and his army should arrive, and for 
seven months he had found his advantage in the easy 
tactics of the French. He did not count upon the 
Maid. 

Early in the morning, the burghers, who had heard 
of the deliberations of the lords, came to her lodg- 
ings. They were weary of bearing the brunt of defend- 



120 JEANNE D'ARC 

ing their city, while knights and squires were fed and 
housed at their expense ; they had spent a sleepless 
night, one of many in those months of siege, in re- 
victualling the army across the river ; and now, with 
deliverance in sight, they would brook no delay. They 
besought the Maid, who needed no urging, to accom- 
plish the charge which she held from God and the 
king, and to go out against the enemy. 

" In the name of God, will I do it," cried she, " and 
he who loves me shall follow." 

As she mounted to set forth, a man came bring- 
ing a fish for her breakfast. 

" Keep it for supper," she called gaily to Master 
Boucher, " and when I come back by the bridge, I 
will bring a Godon to share it." 

Her determination had turned all hesitation to cer- 
tainty, and Dunois, Gaucourt, Rais, La Hire, Poton 
de Saintrailles, Florent d'llliers, and many other cap- 
tains crossed with her; although some must remain 
to guard the city. 

The task of the French was not an easy one. The 
strong boulevard of the Tourelles must first be 
forced, and then beyond a drawbridge was the Tou- 
relles itself, guarded on the Orleans side by the 
broken arches of the bridge. The fort and its out- 
post were held by six hundred picked men under 
Moleyns, Poynings, and Glasdale, who were well 
supplied with guns, arrows, crossbow-bolts ; perhaps. 



THE EIGHTH OF MAY 121 

too, they had the great gun, Passe Volant, which had 
thrown eighty-pound stones into Orleans from St. 
Jean le Blanc. The citizens laughed yet when they 
remembered one of the English shots that had struck 
in the midst of a hundred people, with damage only 
to one man's shoe, and another that had plumped 
harmlessly down on a table where five were dining; 
French guns, like Montargis and Riflat, had done 
no greater harm to the Godons and their bastilles. 
But now the real business of war was begun, and 
the besiegers were as well equipped as the besieged, 
with everything necessary for pressing their attack, 
— arrows and all small arms, great shields and move- 
able wooden shelters to protect small companies of 
assailants, cannon, ladders, faggots and beams for 
the ditches. The French far outnumbered the Ene:- 
lish, yet it was not the number of fighting men, but 
their stubborn courage which made the battle mem- 
orable, and the English had the advantage of a seem- 
ingly impregnable position. When d'Alengon saw 
the Tourelles afterward, he said the French needed 
a miracle to take it ; if he had been in the fort with 
only a few men, he could have defied an army. 

The attack began at six in the morning, and lasted 
without cessation for thirteen hours. The old Jour- 
nal dti SUge vividly pictures the scene for us. " It 
was a marvellous assault, during which were done 
many fair deeds of arms, both by assailants and de- 



122 JEANNE D'ARC 

fenders, for the English bore themselves valiantly; 
while the French were scaling the walls in many 
places at once and attacking the highest part of their 
fortifications with such valor and hardihood that it 
seemed, to have their courage, men must have held 
themselves immortal. But the English threw them 
back many times and tumbled them from high to 
low, fighting with guns and crossbows, as well as 
axes, lances, bills, leaden hammers, and even with 
their fists, so that they killed and wounded many 
French." 

A hundred times the French mounted the walls, 
a hundred times they were thrown back into the 
fosse. The Maid was everywhere at once encour- 
aging her men. "Fear not, the place is yours," she 
was crying. Shortly after noon, she went down into 
the moat and with her own hand planted the first 
ladder against the wall, when she was struck down 
by a crossbow-bolt, which pierced her shoulder above 
the breast. She knew she was to be wounded, yet 
when she felt the pain, she was afraid and wept as 
any girl might have done. Then she was borne out 
of the fight, and some of the soldiers wished to 
"charm" the wound. 

" I would rather die than do a thing which I know 
to be a sin," she said. "I know well I must die one 
day, and I know not when or how. But if my wound 
may be healed without sin, I shall be glad enough to 



THE EIGHTH OF MAY 123 

be cured," and they dressed it with lard and oil. 
Then she confessed herself to Jean Pasquerel, who 
had kept near her as she had bidden him, and would 
have returned to the fight. 

But the sun was setting, and the men were weary. 
They had not hoped to take the place in a month, 
and brave work had been done for that day. Dunois 
ordered the retreat to be sounded, welcome music 
for those exhausted Englishmen within the fort and 
for the camps across the river. Why Talbot had 
been making no use whatever of his twenty-five 
hundred men, it is hard to say. He could have 
crossed by St. Priv6 and fallen on the rear of the 
besiegers, or he could have created a diversion by an 
attack upon the city ; but he did not budge from his 
fort of St. Laurent. 

When the Maid heard the retreat, she came to 
Dunois, and begged him to wait a little longer. 

"In the name of God, you shall enter very soon 
therein. Fear not, the English cannot stand against 
you. Rest a little, eat, and drink." 

Then she withdrew to a vineyard nearby, and, her 
bright armor gleaming among the shadowy vines, 
she knelt in the evening dusk, and prayed for the 
healing comfort of St. Catherine and St. Margaret, 
the valor and wisdom of St. Michael. " For the half 
of a quarter of an hour," she prayed alone. 

When she was borne out of the fight, the Maid 



124 JEANNE D'ARC 

had entrusted her banner to the faithful d'Aulon, 
and all the afternoon he had upheld it before the be- 
sieged boulevard ; but when the retreat was sounded, 
he had handed it to a Basque who stood beside him. 
As Dunois countermanded the order, the thought 
came to d'Aulon that if the standard were pushed to 
the front, by that means the boulevard might be 
taken, " from the great affection which I knew the 
men of war to have for it." 

** If I go forward to the foot of the wall," said he 
to the Basque, " will you follow me?" 

" I will," answered the man. 

Then, protecting himself with his shield, d'Aulon 
leaped into the fosse, and at the moment the Maid, 
refreshed with the comfort of her heavenly Counsel, 
came up. Seeing her banner in strange hands, she 
seized its floating end as the Basque leaped into the 
trench, and cried out : 

" Ha, my standard ! my standard ! " 

The Basque tugged at the banner that he might 
follow d'Aulon as he had promised, and as they 
pulled it back and forth, it seemed to the men-at- 
arms to wave as if for a signal, and they gathered 
for the attack ; while the English, who had thought 
to destroy the power of the witch when they drew 
her blood, as they saw her appear with no sign of 
hurt, "shuddered and were afraid." 

" Ha, Basque ! is this what you promised me } " 



THE EIGHTH OF MAY 125 

cried d'AuIon, when he saw he was not followed ; 
whereupon the man wrenched the banner from the 
Maid's hand and reached his side. 

Jeanne perceived their plan. 

" Watch," said she to the knight beside her. 
" When the wind drives the banner toward the fort, 
it will be ours." 

"Jeanne, it touches ! " he cried. 

Her clear voice rang out to the waiting men. 

" Now enter ! enter ! all is yours ! " 

Her soldiers were never deaf to that call. Every 
scaling ladder was planted against the wall, and up 
they swarmed, " as thick as a cloud of birds lighting 
on a bush," says the chronicle. " Never was an as- 
sault so fierce and wonderful seen within the mem- 
ory of living men ; and valiantly did the English de- 
fend themselves." But their ammunition was giving 
out, and fighting step by step, they retreated by the 
drawbridge to the Tourelles, the captains crossing 
last. Suddenly a foul smoke suffocated them, and 
the bridge was bending beneath their feet, for the 
townsmen had floated a fire boat laden with all man- 
ner of evil smelling fuel down the river, and now the 
iiames had eaten their way through the planks of the 
drawbridge. 

As she pursued the fleeing men, Jeanne's quick 
eye saw their danger. 

" Classidas, Classidas ! Yield thee, yield thee to 



126 JEANNE D'ARC 

the King of Heaven ! " she cried. ** Thou hast done 
me wrong, but I have great pity on thy soul and thy 
people's." 

But the compassionate voice sounded in dying 
ears, for Glasdale and his companions, weighted 
with their armor, sank beneath the water to rise no 
more ; and the Maid, all forgetful of war and victory, 
wept for their souls. 

Quick as thought the gap was bridged to the 
Tourelles, where the huddled English found them- 
selves assailed from a new quarter. 

The French, who had been left on guard in Orleans, 
had been keeping up a more or less effective fire on 
the Tourelles from their fort of the Belle Croix, and 
now they had bridged the broken arches with a gut- 
ter, wrenched from a neighboring house. By this 
perilous path they proposed to earn their meed of 
the day's glory, and under cover of the night, one 
Nicole de Giresme, a knight of St. John of Jerusalem, 
led the way ; the English, assailed from a new direc- 
tion, gave themselves up for lost ; and of those six 
hundred brave men, not one escaped death or cap- 
tivity, while Talbot, who had heard French trumpets 
sounding the recall, saw mounting flames of boule- 
vard and bridge blaze out the story of a new defeat. 

Men were iiard at work strengthening that frail 
bridge from fort to fort ; nor did the careful burghers 
neglect later to pay its price. Their accounts show 



THE EIGHTH OF MAY 127 

that one Jean Bazin received eleven sous for his gut- 
ter, and sundry carpenters sixteen sous "for drink 
money the day the Tourelles was won," "pour aler 
boire le jour que les Tourelles furent gaign^esy And 
well on into the night, the Maid, as she had predicted, 
returned to the city by way of the bridge. "God 
knows," wrote Perceval de Cagny, "with what joy 
she and her people were received there." 

The bells of Orleans rang out the victory, and 
priests and people chanted Te Deum in all the 
churches. The Maid stopped to return thanks in the 
old Church of St. Paul, as she rode to her lodgings 
in the house of Jacques Boucher, where her wound 
was dressed. She had not eaten since dawn, and 
she broke her fast with four or five bits of bread 
soaked in wine and water, and then she lay down to 
sleep. 

At dawn Orleans woke to the stir of war, for 
the English had left their forts and, with standards 
flying, had placed themselves in battle array before 
the walls. Those within promptly answered the chal- 
lenge by marching forth and opposing rank to rank, 
while the Maid, broken of her short rest, and armed 
only with a light suit of mail to ease her wound, hur- 
ried out to join her men, who, intoxicated with vic- 
tory, urged an attack, while she counselled delay. 
Her shrewdness probably saw that the weary French 
were no match in open field for this array of English, 



128 JEANNE D'ARC 

flanked by their archers, who had done such deadly 
work at Agincourt and Verneuil. 

" Let us not attack them, for it is a Sunday," she 
said. *'But if they attack us, we will defend ourselves 
right valiantly. Have no fear ; we shall be the mas- 
ters." 

Then she said they would hear mass, and an altar 
was set up in the midst of the field, and two priests 
said a mass in turn. As the last Deo Gratias died 
away, she said to those near : 

** Look at the English. Are their faces or their 
backs turned toward us ? *' 

"Their backs," was the answer, for the English 
were making off in an orderly retreat. 

*' Let them go," said the Maid. " It does not please 
God that we should fight them today. Another time 
you shall have them." 

La Hire and Lor^ with a hundred lances, followed 
the army for three leagues, and came back reporting 
a genuine retreat. Probably the English were glad 
enough to dodge the issue for that time. "The cour- 
age of the soldiers was shaken," wrote Bedford, 
" by lack of sadde beleeve, and unlav^rf ul doubt they 
had of a disciple and lyme of the Feende called the 
Pucelle, who used fals enchantments and sorcerie." 

At the tail of the retreating army a French pris- 
oner, hampered by his chains, was led by an Augus- 
tinian monk. As the distance widened between him 



THE EIGHTH OF MAY 129 

and his captors, he lagged as he could and walked 
more painfully. Then as the last horseman sank out 
of sight, he turned on his keeper. " Now shall you 
carry me to Orleans," said he ; and with chains clank- 
ing merrily, he rode to his home pick-a-back on the 
good father, who, it turned out, was not unwilling to 
impart some of Talbot's secrets to the French cap- 
tains. 

" The raising of the siege of Orleans shall be my 
sign," the Maid had flashed back at Brother Seguin 
of Poitiers. She had given her sign: Orleans was de- 
livered, and France still held the key of the Loire. 
Never again should the tide of war bear English arms 
as far as Orleans, and a girl of seventeen had gained 
one of "The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World." 

Now the imprisoned burghers could breathe once 
more the free air of the fields, and out they came to 
view the terrible bastilles at close hand. The English 
had left behind their sick and some prisoners, and in 
St. Laurent was found Guyenne, that herald of the 
Maid whom they had threatened to burn. They had 
been obliged, also, to abandon their heavy artillery 
and many goods and provisions; and the townsmen 
made haste to destroy the forts, after they had wheeled 
the guns and ammunition into the city and looted the 
supplies. "But if they made good cheer," said a Bur- 
gundian writer, "it had cost them dear." And those 
fifteen thousand who had lived in the suburb of the 



130 JEANNE D'ARC 

Burgundy Gate, or of the Bernier or Regnart Gate, 
or the Portereau, might have the poor comfort of re- 
visiting their ruined homes, destroyed for the good 
of Orleans, and beaten out of all familiar semblance 
by the tread of armies. But their city was safe, and 
they could live where they pleased and how they 
pleased ; the heavy days of imprisonment were past, 
and the burden of supporting those idle men-at-arms 
was lifted from their shoulders. 

Then the people turned again to the churches to 
thank God and the saints for their deliverance. St. 
Aignan and St. Euverte, two bishops whose prayers 
in the old days had saved them from the pagan, had 
by their intercession worked another miracle; and, 
with the relics of the saints borne before, a great 
procession of clergy, knights, burghers, soldiers, the 
Maid marching as one of them, each with candle in 
hand, visited the churches, and the people cried 
''Noel! Noeir And thus Orleans kept its first Fete 
of the Eighth of May, as it has never since failed to 
do, save during the Revolution. But soon the old 
saints gave place to the Maid in the commemoration 
of the day, and the people were proud to call her 
their Maid, the Maid of Orleans. This very summer 
an old Orleanais said with pride : " She has been for- 
gotten by the world for hundreds of years, but Or- 
leans never forgot." Whoever else might fail, they 
never faltered in their grateful loyalty. They re- 



THE EIGHTH OF MAY 131 

sponded to any appeal she might make, and after her 
death they housed her brother and mother. And then 
her brothers, carrying a little image of her attached 
to a candle, walked in the procession of the Eighth 
of May ; and later a great banner was substituted for 
the image, where Jeanne was pictured kneeling at 
one side of the Tourelles and Charles VH on the 
other. This became the device of Orleans, with the 
motto : " The Lord has done this, and to our eyes it 
is a miracle." 



XII 

LOCHES AND SELLES 

WHEN news of the defeat at Orleans reached 
Paris on the tenth of May, Fauconbridge, 
a clerk of parliament, made note in his 
register: ** What the event will be the God of battles 
knows," and on his margin he traced a profile sketch 
of a woman in armor, holding in her right hand a 
pennon bearing the letters I. H. S., and in the other 
hand a sword. Even Englishmen pictured the joy of 
Orleans, and one historian wrote : " After the siege 
was thus broken up, to tell you what triumphs were 
made in the city of Orleans, what wood was spent in 
fire, what wine was drunk in houses, what songs were 
sung in the streets, what melody was made in taverns, 
what rounds were danced in large and broad places, 
what lights were set up in the churches, what anthems 
were sung in chapels, and what joy was showed in 
every place — it were a long work, and yet no neces- 
sary cause. For they did as we in like case would 
have done ; and we, being in like estate, would have 
done as they did." 

The French army was breaking up, the garrisons 



LOCHES AND SELLES 133 

returning to their towns, the captains to their homes. 
That very Sunday afternoon, Florent d'llliers set 
out for Chateaudun, where he instituted a festival in 
honor of the victory that saved his town as well as 
Orleans. Bourges, also, showed its gratitude by cele- 
brating the deliverance yearly on the Sunday after 
Ascension Day, and other towns had their festival. 
The Maid, however, did not delay with merrymak- 
ing and thanksgiving. She had given her sign ; but 
Charles was not crowned, the English remained in 
France, the Duke of Orleans was still an exile. On 
Monday, the ninth, " she took leave of those of Or- 
leans, who all wept with joy and very humbly thanked 
her and offered themselves and their goods to her 
for the asking. For which she thanked them very 
kindly, and set out upon her sacred charge; for she 
had done and accomplished the first, which was the 
raising of the siege of Orleans." 

Not long after, a great force of knights and squires 
and the militia from several towns came together 
under the captaincy of Dunois and Poton de Saint- 
rallies, and marched against Jargeau, twelve miles 
up the river. But its moat, fed by the Loire at flood, 
was deep, and experienced soldiers as they were, 
they had neglected to bring materials for the bridg- 
ing. The Maid, with her quick insight into a difficulty 
and the staying quality of her determination to win, 
was not with them ; and after some three or four hours* 



134 JEANNE D'ARC 

hard fighting, during which the English commander 
was killed, they marched back to Orleans. 

Charles had sent out bulletins of the week's vic- 
tories to his loyal towns of Narbonne and La Ro- 
chelle. News was jotted down as it was brought in 
by mounted messengers : the taking of St. Loup, of 
the Augustins, of theTourelles, and then the raising 
of the siege. Jeanne is the only leader mentioned by 
name : " The Maid, who was always there in person 
at the doing of all these things." He does not add 
that but for her there would have been no good 
news to hearten loyalty. The French captains, how- 
ever, always gave her due credit for the victory: 
there was no doubt in the minds of those who saw 
her work that Jeanne the Maid raised the siege of 
Orleans. 

Two great churchmen were to add their word to 
her meed of praise. Jean Gerson, who, twenty-five 
years before, had preached his daring sermon before 
the mad king and his court, and Jacques Gelu, Arch- 
bishop of Embrun, sent their opinion to the dauphin. 
False tales, pleasing to jealous ears, were already be- 
ginning to creep about, and told of her vanity and 
cunning ; and Gerson quoted Cato to the effect that 
"our judgment need not bow to everything that is 
said." He defends her wearing of male dress, and 
says that belief in her is not an article of faith, nor 
should she or the leaders throw aside ordinary pru- 



LOCHES AND SELLES 135 

dence ; but he alludes to her always as sent by God 
for the saving of the kingdom. This was the last 
public utterance of the great doctor ; he died the fol- 
lowing July. Jacques Gelu follows Gerson in sober 
advice as to finance, artillery, scaling ladders ; but 
where divine wisdom has its special function, human 
prudence should yield the place, and it is then that 
the counsel of the Maid, " whom we piously believe 
to be the Angel of the Armies of the Lord," should 
be sought above all others. 

News of the "right glorious Maid " came to Rome, 
where a friendly writer declared her miracles to be 
real for they were to good purpose and tended to 
help faith and morals ; she seeks nothing for herself, 
and receives money only to give it away ; she had 
required the dauphin to surrender the kingdom 
to God. " You are now the poorest knight in your 
kingdom," she had told him ; which seems to echo 
the conversation she had with Charles and La 
Tremouille and d'Alengon on a certain day at 
Chinon. 

The Maid and her company went directly to Tours, 
to set about the next business in hand, "the due 
crowning" of their king. Charles graciously made 
the small effort to meet her there, and when she saw 
him approaching, with banner in hand she rode out 
to meet him. " Then the young girl bowed to her 
saddle before him," wrote a German chronicler, " and 



136 JEANNE D'ARC] 

the king bade her rise ; and they thought he would 
have kissed her for joy he had of her." 

But the dauphin was in no such hurry to save his 
kingdom as was the Maid, nor ever while she lived 
did he give himself wholeheartedly to her wise 
swift method. Victory had secured for the moment 
his careless life in Touraine chateaux, and the four 
chief men at court each had his reason for thwarting 
the peasant girl who so amazingly upset their plot 
and counterplot. It was these men, and not her good 
comrades La Hire and Dunois, Saint railles and Bous- 
sac, or even d'Alengon, prince of the blood and her 
familiar friend, whose influence weighed heaviest in 
that "year and little more" that was left her. 

Georges de la Tremouille, false to all parties, made 
it his chief concern, as we have seen, to fill his own 
pockets, and an unstable government gave his treach- 
ery free play. His supremacy trembled before this 
flower of chivalry, to whom the hearts of men were 
turning; he never ceased his efforts to undermine 
her influence or neutralize any advantage she might 
gain, and his most useful medium lay in the indo- 
lent, morbid disposition of his master. Regnault de 
Chartres, Archbishop of Reims and chancellor of 
the king, was the unswerving advocate of union with 
Burgundy, and big with conceit of his own statesman- 
ship, he was convinced that he it was who, by the 
long game of diplomacy, should without bloodshed 



LOCHES AND SELLES 137 

deliver France. Naturally, he did not welcome the 
"messenger of God" sent to work that deliverance 
by methods in which he had no place. Her straight 
free road lay far from his devious paths, and although 
he seemed to acquiesce in what must be, his vanity 
watched its chance to proclaim any failure of hers 
righteously decreed. Robert le Magon was a well- 
meaning old man, whose day was done ; and Raoul 
de Gaucourt, trained in the science and practice of 
war, was not likely to admit that this child could 
teach him anything of his trade. It was never Eng- 
lish and Burgundians who were the Maid's greatest 
enemies ; with good soldiers at her back, she knew 
how to get the best of them. But by every fresh 
proof of her leadership, she only increased the efforts 
of her smooth-faced foes at court to dig the pit into 
which at last her feet must fall ; and while prudence 
may explain the first reluctance to employ her, it is 
only by light of the ill-will of those high in power 
that we can read the true story of later times. Charles 
himself was never entirely won by the Maid, and with 
the uneasy vanity of a weak man, he gave an ear to 
criticism of deeds which he lacked heart to share. 

Jeanne expected the dauphin to set out at once for 
Reims ; but it was argued that the garrisoned English 
and Burgundian towns which lay in the road should first 
be reduced, and that it must take at least six weeks 
to equip an army sufficiently strong to conduct him 



138 JEANNE D'ARC 

through that hostile country. Her daring was wisdom: 
while the English companies were scattered and their 
courage shaken by the victories at Orleans, their 
Witch of the Armagnacs could have led the dauphin 
straight to his consecration. In this " race for a crown," 
she would have won the prize, and then though Bed- 
ford might consecrate his nephew at Paris, Henry of 
England could never be Henry of France in the eyes 
of the people. 

The dauphin had gone down to Loches, where 
Dunois and the other captains and the Maid followed 
him. They urged immediate attack upon the Eng- 
lish garrisons on the Loire, in order to make the way 
to Reims more secure; she unceasingly besought 
him to set out for his sacring. One day Jeanne and 
Dunois went to the council chamber, where Charles 
sat with Sir Christopher d'Harcourt, Gerard Machet, 
Robert le Ma^on, and his confessor. 

Jeanne knocked boldly at the door, and entering, 
threw herself at the king's feet, clasping his knees. 

" Noble dauphin, hold no longer these many and 
wordy councils," she begged him. "But come quickly 
to Reims and take the crown that is yours by right." 

"Does your Counsel tell you this ?" asked d'Har- 
court. 

" Yes," responded the Maid, " my Counsel urges 
this most of all." 

" Will you not tell us here, in the king's presence, 



LOCHES AND SELLES 139 

what manner of Counsel it is that thus speaks to 
you?" 

" I understand what it is you wish to know/* said 
she, blushing, "and I will tell you willingly." 

"Jeanne, do you want to do this before these peo- 
ple who are listening to us ? " asked the king. 

"Yes, sire," she answered, simply. Then she 
turned to them all. " When I am troubled because 
these things that I would say in God's name are not 
quickly believed, I go apart and pray. I lament be- 
cause those to whom I speak do not believe me more 
readily ; and then, my prayer ended, I hear a Voice 
saying to me : * Daughter of God, on ! on ! I will be 
thy aid. On ! ' And when I hear this Voice, I have 
great joy. I would I could always hear it thus ! " 

And Dunois, listening with those men abashed, 
noted that " as she spoke the words of her Counsel, 
she was in marvellous ecstasy, her eyes raised to 
heaven." 

The people found no difficulty in believing that 
she came from God, and as she rode through the 
streets, they threw themselves before her horse, and 
pressed about her, kissing her hands and feet. Maitre 
Pierre de Versailles, one of those whom Gobert Thi- 
bault had brought to her that day at Poitiers, saw 
her at Loches. 

" It is not right to permit these unseemly things," 
he prosed, shocked by the worshipping people. " You 



140 JEANNE D'ARC 

should guard against that which tends to make men 
idolatrous." 

" In truth," she returned, " I do not know how to 
protect myself, if God protects me not." But she had 
her own tender explanation of the devotion shown 
her, when upbraided later by a more unfriendly 
judge : "They kissed my hands and feet as little as 
I could help. The poor folk came to me readily be- 
cause I never did them any unkindness, but helped 
them as I could." And her humble heart must have 
brimmed with gratitude that it had never failed any, 
high or low, of her "good people." 

Lazy king or selfish courtiers could no longer stem 
the tide of popular enthusiasm roused by this new 
hope for France, and it was decided to follow the 
advice of the captains, and attack the English towns 
near Orleans. Selles, a town of Berri fifteen miles 
from Loches, was made a rendezvous for the troops, 
and Jeanne's "fair duke," my Lord d'Alengon, was 
given the command. She had not seen him from the 
time she left Chinon until after the victory at Or- 
leans, for only now had he paid the last of his ruin- 
ous ransom to the English and was free of his parole. 

From all quarters came men eager to fight, with 
pay or without, and among them was young Guy de 
Laval and his brother Andre, who, driven from their 
lands, had left their mother and grandmother at the 
Chateau of Vitri, and set out, with a poor following, 



LOCHES AND SELLES 141 

for the wars, where they should find kinsmen, — 
Vendome, their brother-in-law, and Rais, a cousin. 
Jeanne de Laval had brought up a large family hon- 
orably and defended their patrimony against the 
English ; and Anne, the grandmother, had first mar- 
ried in her youth the Constable Du Guesclin, who 
early in the Hundred Years' War had done great 
deeds for France. When he was captured by the 
Black Prince, he had proudly set his own ransom at 
a hundred thousand livres. 

** Where will you get such a sum.?" asked the 
Prince. 

" The King of Castille, my lord, will pay the half, 
the King of France the rest ; and if any be lacking, 
there is not a woman in France but would spin for 
my ransom." 

On the eighth of June, these sons of Laval duti- 
fully wrote to their mother and grandmother a long 
letter, brimming with young enthusiasm. Guy, who 
pens it, makes a vivid picture of those stirring weeks 
when the army was gathering, and through it all 
shines the gracious figure of the Maid. 

" My very respected ladies and mothers : Since I 
wrote you from Ste. Katherine de Fierbois last Fri- 
day, I arrived on Saturday at Loches." There he 
visits the castle and sees the little dauphin Louis, 
and his cousin, the Lady de la Tr^mouille, who made 
him " very good cheer." The next day they went to 



142 JEANNE D'ARC 

St. Aignan, where was the king, who also made him 
good cheer ; and the letter goes on, " he said that I 
had come to the work without the asking, and that 
he bore me good will for it. . . . And on Monday I 
left the king to go to Selles in Berri, four leagues 
from St. Aignan, and the king sent for the Maid who 
was at Selles, some say for my sake that I might see 
her, and she made very good cheer to my brother 
and myself, and was fully armed, save the head, and 
held a lance in her hand. And after we arrived at 
Selles, I went to her quarters to see her; and she 
had wine brought and told me that soon she would 
give me drink in Paris. She seems a creature wholly 
divine, whether to see or to hear. Monday, at ves- 
pers, she left Selles to go to Romorantin, three 
leagues in advance, the Marechal de Boussac and a 
great number of men-at-arms and common people 
with her. And I saw her, armed all in white, save 
the head, and a little battle-axe in her hand, mount 
upon a great black courser which at the door of her 
lodging plunged and would not let her mount. Then 
she said, *Lead him to the cross,* — it stands in the 
road before the neighboring church, — and there she 
mounted without his stirring, as if he were bound. 
And she turned to the church door nearby and called 
in her sweet woman's voice : * You priests and church- 
men, make procession and prayers to God.' Then 
turning on her way, * Forward ! forward ! ' she cried ; 



LOCHES AND SELLES 143 

and her floating banner was borne by a gracious page, 
and she with the little battle-axe in her hand. And 
her brothers, who had been here for eight days, went 
with her, all armed in white. 

"On that Monday, my Lord d'Alengon, with a 
very great company came to Selles, and today I won 
a match at tennis from him. And my brother of 
Vendome has not yet arrived. But I found here a 
gentleman sent from my brother of Chauvigny, who 
had heard that I had reached Ste. Katherine, and he 
told me that my brother had summoned his vassals 
and hoped soon to be here, and that he dearly loves 
my sister and that she was stouter than she used 
to be. 

** It is said here that my lord constable is coming 
with six hundred men-at-arms and four hundred 
archers, and that Jean de la Roche comes also, and 
that never did the king gather so great a company 
as is hoped for here, and never did men come with 
better will to fight. And today came my cousin of 
Rais . . - and the Lord Argenton, one of the princi- 
pal commanders, who has received me well. But of 
money there is none at the court, or so little that for 
the time I can hope for no help or maintenance ; and 
you, my lady mother, who have my seal, hesitate not 
to sell or mortgage my land, or make some better 
arrangement, that we may be saved. Since if we do 
not thus, seeing that there is no pay, we shall be left 



144 JEANNE D'ARC 

behind quite alone. Up to now we have been and 
still are much honored and our coming has greatly 
pleased the king and the other lords from every- 
where, and everyone has made us better cheer than 
we know how to write. 

" The Maid told me at her quarters, when I went 
to see her, that three days before my coming she 
had sent to you, my grandmother, a very little gold 
ring, but that it was a very little thing and that she 
would have liked well to send you better, considering 
your distinction. 

" Today my Lord d'Alengon, the Bastard of Or- 
leans and Gaucourt left Selles to join the Maid. And 
you have sent I know not what letters to my cousin 
de la Tremouille and the Lord of Treves, by reason of 
which the king wishes to keep us near him until the 
Maid has besieged the places about Orleans, and the 
artillery is now ready, and the Maid expects soon to 
be with the king, who says that when he sets out for 
Reims I shall go with him. But God forbid that I 
should wait that long and not go at once, and so says 
my brother, and likewise my Lord d'Alengon. Such 
a wastrel will he be who stays behind ! And it is 
thought the king will leave here today to get nearer 
the army, and men are coming in from all quarters 
every day. You shall know as soon as there is any 
fighting what the outcome is. It is hoped that within 
ten days the thing will be settled, one way or the 



LOCHES AND SELLES 145 

other. But all have such good hope in God, that I 
think He will aid us. 

" My very respected ladies and mothers, we, my 
brother and I, send you our remembrances, as hum- 
bly as possible . . . and may it please you to write 
us soon of yourselves ; and you, my lady mother, 
tell how you have been after the medicines you have 
been taking, for I have been very anxious about 
you. . . . 

" Written at Selles, this Wednesday, the eighth of 
June. 

" And this vespers, there arrived here my Lord of 
Venddme, my Lord de Boussac, and others ; and La 
Hire is joining the army, and soon they will be at it. 
God grant we have our desire. 

" Your humble sons, 

" Guy and Andre de Laval." 



XIII 

JARGEAU TO PATAY 

ON June 9, the Maid entered her loyal town 
of Orleans by way of the bridge she had 
won a month before. The people received 
her with joy and set about providing supplies for her 
impoverished army. Although d'Alengon, the lieu- 
tenant-general, Dunois and Florent d'llliers rode with 
her, their gifts were to the Maid, whose courage and 
wisdom they had good cause to know ; and they were 
not only grateful for their deliverance, but they wished 
to make that deliverance secure by clearing the Loire 
towns of English troops. While the enemy held Jar- 
geau above them, and Meung and Beaugency as many 
miles below, they could never feel entirely safe ; while 
the bugaboo of Fastolf's army of relief swooping 
down from the north to reunite those scattered Eng- 
lish garrisons in a new siege of Orleans kept them 
in constant terror. And, in fact, as the French troops 
were entering the city, news came that Fastolf had 
begun his southward march, with five thousand men 
and great stores of provisions and artillery. 

Immediately the French captains began to dispute 
about the best scheme of action. Some were for 



JARGEAU TO PATAY 147 

marching out to meet Fastolf before he could join 
forces with Suffolk, Scales, and Talbot, the defeated 
besiegers of Orleans ; others wished to attack the 
garrisons first. And they might have talked until 
Fastolf arrived, and then comfortably entrenched 
themselves at Orleans, had it not been for the "fair 
words " of the Maid and one or two of the generals, 
Dunois we may guess among them, which reunited 
the council. 

When they objected that these Godons were good 
fighters and their numbers great, the Maid had her 
answer. 

" Do not fear their numbers, nor delay the attack. 
God leads our enterprise. If I were not sure of that, 
I would rather be tending my sheep than risk such 
perils." 

And the peacemakers did their work so well that 
on Saturday, June 1 1, the whole body of troops, eight 
thousand foot and horse, says one chronicle, took the 
way to Jargeau. 

Suffolk had retreated here from Orleans, and held 
the compact little town with a sufficient force of six 
or seven hundred men. From its towered walls he 
could watch the French army marching down the flat 
river road, and he was ready for them when they ar- 
rived in the early afternoon. The undisciplined mili- 
tia were in the van, and without waiting for men-at- 
arms or artillery, rushed to the attack ; but the garrison 



148 JEANNE D'ARC 

easily beat them back, and sallying out, drove them 
to the shelter of the woods. Then the Maid rode for- 
ward, standard in hand. 

" Courage ! courage ! " she cried ; and as she ral- 
lied the fleeing Frenchmen, her men-at-arms came 
up, and the English were driven into the town. The 
Maid followed her usual custom by summoning Suf- 
folk to surrender, and that night the army camped in 
the suburbs. 

" I think truly it was God Who was leading us," 
was d* Alengon's pious reflection in a later year, " for 
we kept no guard and had the English made a sally, 
we must have been in great danger." But Suffolk and 
his men did not tempt the power of the Witch that 
night, and kept within their walls. 

Next morning the French placed their artillery, 
and d'Alengon had opportunity to note the Maid's 
skill. 

" She was wise about all military matters," he said, 
" but it was in the use of artillery that she was most 
wonderful." And so well did she place the great 
Orleans gun. La Berg^re, that its shot ruined one 
tower of the city wall. 

While the captains were planning out their attack, 
word came that La Hire was parleying with Suffolk, 
and he was immediately recalled. Suffolk was asking 
for a fifteen days' truce, in which time he calculated, 
no doubt, Fastolf must arrive. 



JARGEAU TO PATAY 149 

" Tell them they may leave at once in their tunics, 
without arms or armor," cried the Maid. "Otherwise 
they shall be taken by assault." 

A captain must be in worse case than Suffolk to 
accept such terms, and the French herald-at-arms 
sounded the assault. 

"Forward, gentle duke, to the assault!" cried 
Jeanne to d'Alen^on, who seemed to think the artil- 
lery should continue its work, and that attack was 
premature. 

" Doubt not I It is the right time when it pleases 
God," said the Maid. " We must work when He wills. 
Act and God will act." Then, as d'Alengon still 
hesitated, she added : " Ah, fair duke, are you afraid ? 
Do you not know that I promised your wife to bring 
you back to her safe and sound ?'* 

As they had been leaving for the war, young 
Jeanne d'Alengon, remembering her husband's three 
years' imprisonment and the heavy ransom but now 
paid, would have held him back. 

"Fear not, madam," said the Maid gently. "I will 
return him to you in as good case or better than he 



is now." 



And the moment had come to recall that promise. 

"Change your place," Jeanne cried to the duke, 
"or that gun will kill you." Her keen eye had seen 
that he was in direct range from the walls, and soon 
after a gentleman was killed on the very spot. 



150 JEANNE D'ARC 

Suffolk demanded to speak with d'Alen^on, but 
the time for parleying had passed, and the assault 
continued. The ditch was bridged, and the Maid 
was mounting a scaling ladder, standard in hand, 
when a stone struck the heavy linen of her banner 
and broke on her light helmet. She fell to the ground, 
but in a moment was up. 

"On, friends, on! Our Lord hath doomed the 
English ! The day is ours ! Have good heart ! '* 

And as the men surged over the ramparts, Suf- 
folk, hoping to escape to the north bank of the river, 
retreated toward the bridge. But the French were 
close at his heels, one of his brothers was killed in the 
streets ; he, himself, with another brother and many 
men-at-arms, was captured. Guillaume Regnault, a 
squire of Auvergne, took Suffolk as he reached the 
bridge, 

" Are you a gentleman ? " demanded the earl. 

"Yes." 

"Are you a knight ? " 

"No." 

Whereupon Suffolk then and there dubbed him 
knight : a proud English lord could surrender to 
none less. 

Hundreds of the fleeing English were slain in the 
streets. It never paid to take common soldiers : pris- 
oners were held for a price. Then the town was 
sacked, and even the old church, which the English 



JARGEAU TO PAT AY 151 

had taken for a storehouse. Suffolk and his captive 
men-at-arms were sent down the river to Orleans 
under cover of night, for the French had begun to 
quarrel over the right of ransom, and some of the 
prisoners had been butchered. It is said the French 
loss was only twenty in killed and wounded. 

The Maid and her captains returned in triumph to 
Orleans, where the burghers welcomed them with a 
public procession, and presented d'Alen^on with six 
casks of wine, the Maid with four, Vendome with 
two ; and the town council ordered a robe and huqiie 
for Jeanne of the Orleans colors, green and crimson. 
In old times, the Orleans green had been clear and 
bright, but after the murder of Duke Louis it had 
been darkened, and since Agincourt was almost 
black. Her hnque was of the green, and the long- 
sleeved levite, or overcoat, of crimson Brussels cloth, 
or "cramoisy," lined with white satin and embroid- 
ered with the Orleans device, the nettle. Jean Luil- 
lier and Jean Bourgeois, silk merchant and tailor, 
were paid thirteen ^cus (Tor for the outfit by Jacques 
Boucher, who was later reimbursed by order of 
Charles d'Orleans to his " beloved and loyal men of 
accounts, . . . for a robe and huqiie delivered Jeanne 
the Maid in the month of June." Jeanne never lost 
her girl's liking for pretty clothes, and probably her 
fine new coats were more to her taste than the pon- 
derous offering of the burghers. 



152 JEANNE D'ARC 

By the taking of Jargeau, the wide southward 
sweep of the Loire for fifty miles above Orleans was 
freed from hostile garrisons; but the English still 
held Meung and Beaugency a few miles downstream 
on the Beauce bank, and these towns must be at- 
tacked before Fastolf should arrive. No one saw this 
more clearly than the Maid, and on the evening of 
June 14, she said to d'Alengon: 

" Tomorrow, after dinner, I wish to visit those at 
Meung. Have all ready to set out at that hour." 

And next afternoon, the whole army crossed the 
river and marched down the Solonge bank, while 
artillery and supplies were sent by water. 

At Meung, the bridge was a mile upstream from 
the town and separated from it by a wide plain. The 
French took the fortified bridgehead and its boule- 
vard without much trouble, crossed to the Beauce 
again, and camped for the night. D'Alengon said 
that he was in a church so near the town that he 
was in some peril. Next morning they garrisoned 
the bridgehead, marched on within gunshot range 
of the walls, and without attempting to attack Meung, 
which was held by Lord Scales, made their way to 
Beaugency, four miles farther down the river. 

Talbot had retreated here from Orleans, and when 
he heard of the French approach, he threw into the 
town the garrisons of several places, put Gough, ^ 
brave Welshman, in command, and with a small com- 



JARGEAU TO PATAY 153 

pany, set off posthaste to meet Fastolf on the Paris 
road and hurry forward the reinforcements. Gough 
concentrated his men, less than a thousand all told, 
in the castle which commanded the bridge, leaving a 
few ambushed in the town. As the French marched 
in, these men fell upon them, but with losses on both 
sides, were driven back to the castle. 

That evening word came that the Constable Riche- 
mont, with a large company of men, was approaching. 
This was distracting news for the French captains, 
for the king had repeatedly refused to receive Riche- 
mont or make use of his services, and within a few 
months La Tremouille had been using public money 
to fight him in Poitou. D'Alengon was his nephew 
and had no personal quarrel with him, but had been 
expressly forbidden by the king to recognize the con- 
stable, and now he even contemplated escaping from 
his dilemma by a retreat. But next day the patrols 
rode in with news of Fastolf's army, and practical 
Jeanne said it would be better for Frenchmen to help 
one another than to run away for a scruple ; and they 
rode out to meet the constable. With them was Guy 
de Laval, whose mother must have yielded to his 
frantic appeal to save him from being left behind with 
ne'er-do-weels, as he and Andr6, with their brother- 
in-law Chauvigny, had joined the army at Orleans. 

Just out of the town they met a fine cavalcade, led 
by a dark little man, thick-lipped and surly, — the 



154 JEANNE D'ARC 

Comte de Richemont, Arthur of Brittany, brother 
of the duke. 

" Ah, fair constable, you have not come by my 
will," was Jeanne's greeting as Richemont dismounted. 
" But now you are here, you are welcome." 

Meantime the siege of Beaugency castle was being 
pressed with all the great engines of attack sent 
down from Orleans. Far outnumbered as he was by 
an army freshly reinforced and tireless in attack, 
with battered walls and no news of relief, Gough 
found himself in sore straits, and capitulated on easy 
terms at midnight on Friday, June 17. At dawn next 
day, the men of the garrison were allowed to march 
out with their armor and horses and goods " to the 
value of a silver mark," on condition that they should 
not fight for ten days, while Gough and another cap- 
tain were held as hostages. The French had bigger 
game in view, and no doubt were glad, at so small a 
price, to be rid of this hostile force in their rear. 

On Thursday, Talbot had met the English army 
at Janville, twenty-five miles north of Orleans, where 
news had reached Fastolf of the loss of Jargeau and 
the French advance. As the captains were holding 
a council of war, Talbot entered and was warmly wel- 
comed, "for at that time he was held to be the wisest 
and most valiant knight of the realm of England." 
He confirmed the news of the mounting tide of 
French success. Fastolf counselled delay ; the Eng- 



JARGEAU TO PAT AY 155 

lish would do better to hold what remained to them 
and wait for reinforcements from Bedford. Times 
had changed : English troops were now disheartened 
by defeat, while Frenchmen had the renewed con- 
fidence won by victory. 

** We are but a handful to the French,'* said Fas- 
tolf. ** If fortune goes against us, all that old King 
Henry won in France at the price of such great labor, 
will be lost." 

But Talbot was eager to retrieve his defeat at Or- 
leans, nor was he willing to abandon those garrisons 
on the Loire. 

" With my own company, and such as will follow 
me, I will fight them, by the help of God and St. 
George," he declared. 

Fastolf was overborne. Next morning they all set 
out for the Loire, and at sunset, when within a league 
of Beaugency, they came upon the French troops 
drawn up in battle array on a little hill. 

When scouts had brought word of the certain ap- 
proach of Fastolf's long dreaded army, some of the 
French captains would have retreated, but the Maid 
had shamed them into making a stand, and probably 
had chosen the advantageous spot from which they 
should deliver their defiance. 

" In God's name, we must fight," she said. " Were 
they hanging from the clouds, we should have them. 
God has sent them to us for their punishment." 



156 JEANNE D'ARC 

Now the English, also, fell into line of battle, the 
knights dismounted, the archers drove their pikes 
into the ground for a palisade, and put the arrows, 
ready for use, in orderly rows at their feet. But the 
French were not to be tempted from their strong posi- 
tion. English heralds rode out saying three knights 
would fight them if they dared come down from 
their hill. 

" Go to your rest for today, it is late enough,*' they 
had for answer. ''But tomorrow, please God and our 
Lady, we shall see you at closer quarters." 

The English marched on to Meung, and during the 
night bombarded the bridgehead, which was held by 
Richemont. They did not know that Beaugency was 
to fall that night, and probably meant to cross into 
the Solonge and relieve it by way of the bridge. But 
the Meung bridge held out, and when Fastolf heard 
of Gough's surrender, he and all the united English 
forces set off across the great wooded plain of the 
Beauce in the direction of Patay, a town standing 
midway between Meung and Rouvray, where he had 
won the battle of the herrings four months before. 

" What is to be done now ? " asked d'Alen^on of 
the Maid, when he had assembled Richemont, Du- 
nois, and the other captains in a council of war. 

" Have all of you good spurs .?" she cried. 

" How is that > Shall we run away?" 

" Nay. In the name of God, after them ! It is the 



JARGEAU TO PAT AY 157 

English who will not defend themselves, and shall 
be beaten. You must have good spurs to follow 
them." 

And again she assured them that victory was cer- 
tain., 

"The gentle king shall have today the greatest 
victory he has ever had. My Counsel has told me all 
of them shall be ours." 

The French army quickly fell into line for pursuit. 
La Hire and Poton de Saintrailles were sent forward 
with a squad of eighty men mounted on " the flower 
of horses," and the army followed more slowly. 
Jeanne, to her great vexation, came last. She would 
have liked La Hire's place ; but the captains would 
not risk her in that post of peril, and, it may be, they 
reflected that they could manage her impetuosity 
better in the rear. 

The English were retreating northward in good 
order. Behind the advance guard, led by a knight 
with a white standard, was the artillery and baggage ; 
and at some distance came the bulk of the army, 
probably composed largely of Picards and foreigners, 
under Fastolf and Talbot. The rear guard were Eng- 
lish. When they were within a league of Patay, and 
still twelve miles from Janville, where most of their 
supplies had been left, scouts rode in with news of 
the French in great force. Other scouts were sent, 
only to confirm the report ; and it was hastily de- 



158 JEANNE D'ARC 

cided to conceal the artillery and commissariat in the 
wood near Patay, under guard of the knight of the 
white standard and his company, while Fastolf was 
to lead the main body of the troops forward to join 
them. The road was bordered with high hedges, and 
Talbot, seeing the advantage of the position, said he 
would cover the retreat by holding the narrow way 
with five hundred archers until the forces met, and 
then fall back in his turn. 

Meantime the French vanguard, under La Hire, 
was scouring back and forth across the great plain, 
which has been called the " granary of France," but 
then, by the cruel usage of war, was uncultivated 
and overgrown with briars and bushes. As they gal- 
loped forward, a stag started up from the underbrush, 
and bounded into the midst of Talbot's archers, who, 
never suspecting the enemy's nearness, greeted it 
with a shout. The French riders drew rein, and sent 
back a messenger to hurry forward the main army. 
Then, clapping spurs to their horses, they charged 
upon the archers and cut them down before pike 
could be planted or arrow set to string. 

Fastolf, with his men, was galloping forward to join 
the advance guard ; but to the followers of the white 
standard he seemed to be fleeing from the enemy, 
and leaving artillery and provisions in the wood, they 
set off pell-mell on the Paris road. Now fugitives were 
coming up with news of Talbot's defeat, and Fastolf 



JARGEAU TO PAT AY 159 

drew rein to confer with his captains. They urged 
him to save himself, for all was lost. 

" I would rather be killed or taken than abandon 
my men thus shamefully," he declared. ** Fight I 
must, let the outcome be as God wills," and he would 
have turned back. But his men were thrown into dis- 
order by the quick approach of the French troops on 
the road made clear by Talbot's defeat. "Beholding 
this," says a chronicler, " Messire Jean Fastolf, heavy- 
hearted, with a very small company, making the great- 
est dole that ever was made by man, . . . took his way 
toward Etampes." Even then he would have thrown 
himself into the fight, had he not been restrained by 
his men ; and for this retreat he lost his Order of the 
Garter, although later it was restored to him. 

The English rout was complete. Talbot was taken 
by Saintrailles, Fastolf and the other leaders had fled, 
their men were being cut down at the will of the vic- 
tors. Dunois reckoned that more than four thousand 
were killed or captured. 

For the first time, Jeanne's standard was not in the 
thick of the battle ; but her encouragement, her in- 
domitable purpose of losing no chance to fight the 
English, determined the victory as surely as if she had 
held the coveted place in the van. She came up in time 
to see the end of the day, and Louis de Coutes tells 
us that '* she had great compassion at such butchery. 
Seeing a Frenchman, who was leading some prison- 



i6o JEANNE D'ARC 

ers, strike one to the ground where he lay as if dead, 
she dismounted and had him confessed, holding his 
head the while and comforting him as she could." 

That night, the army camped at Patay, and, says a 
Burgundian chronicler, "thanked our Lord for their 
fair adventure." Talbot was led before d'Alen^on, 
Jeanne, and the constable. 

" In the morning," was d'Alengon's greeting, " I 
had not looked for this happening." 

"It is the fortune of war," returned the old sol- 
dier. 



XIV 

GIEN 

WHEN fugitives came pouring down the 
road to Janville, the citizens not only 
barred their gates, but forced the Eng- 
lish captain, who was holding the castle, to surrender 
and " make oath to be a good and loyal Frenchman ;" 
and the town, with all the stores and munitions left 
behind when the English made their hasty march to 
the Loire, was given over to France. The garrisons 
of smaller places in the Beauce fled. And three for- 
tified towns taken, a great army cut to pieces, the 
whole country, nearly to the gates of Paris, cleared 
of an enemy, made up the story of that victorious 
week. In every undertaking Jeanne had been the 
motive force. Not only had her courage and high 
purpose inspired the men ; but her quick eye, her 
shrewd commonsense and clear head, had led the 
captain's councils. An old writer says that "when it 
happened that there was among the host any cry or 
affright of men-at-arms, she came, be it on foot or 
horseback, as valiantly as captain of a company could 
have done, in giving heart and courage to her men.'* 
And as to her wisdom, d'Alengon had to say that 



l62 JEANNE D'ARC 

"In all she did, except in affairs of war, she was sim- 
ple and young; but in warlike deeds, whether bear- 
ing the lance, assembling an army, ordering the ranks, 
or disposing the artillery, she was very expert. All 
marvelled that she acted with as much caution and 
foresight as if she had been a captain with twenty 
or thirty years experience.'* Those who watched her 
at the game of war had the one opinion of her abil- 
ity, and with the simple temper of their time believed 
that in her deeds there was more of the divine than 
human. She had the essentials of a great leader : in- 
tuition, perseverance, and sagacity were lighted up by 
unflagging courage and good spirits ; and when her 
keen mind had divined the temper of an enemy and 
seized the decisive moment to strike, she fought with 
never a hint of yielding. With an instinct as unerr- 
ing she understood her own men, and when she had 
inspired respect for discipline, she knew how to bind 
them to her in a happy, almost humorous, worship, 
— they were never done with laughing wonder that 
a girl could cap men's deeds so well, — and with her 
magnetic personality, she set a whole army aflame 
with belief in her power to win. 

Now it would have seemed wiser to follow up the 
victory by marching on Paris, to strike at the heart 
of England's strength while she was dazed with de- 
feat and had had no time to rally her demoralized 
troops or gather reinforcements. Bedford was at the 



GIEN 163 

end of his resources, and Englishmen were showing 
no enthusiasm to enlist for the French war. Rank 
and file were imbued with superstitious terror of the 
Witch of the Armagnacs, who seemed to make her 
men invincible ; and a year later edicts were issued 
prescribing trial and punishment by courtmartial for 
those who had deserted the army in France from 
fear "of the enchantments of the Maid." Paris was 
in a panic. On Tuesday, when news of the disaster 
at Patay reached the city, there was a riot, and many 
believed the French troops were on the heels of the 
fugitives. Had they been, the town must have fallen. 
But the Maid's mind was fixed on the consecration 
at Reims, and the army had been sent out only with 
instructions to clear the Loire. Apparently there was 
no thought of Paris. 

The Maid and her men rode back to Orleans, and 
"were very nobly received. They went to the 
churches and thanked God, the Virgin Mary and the 
blessed saints of paradise for the mercy and honor 
our Lord had shown to the king and to them all, say- 
ing that it was by means of the Maid, and that with- 
out her such marvels could not have been done." 
At La Rochelle, also, there were bonfires and bell- 
ringings and Te Deum ; and in a great procession to 
the Church of Notre Dame, each child in the city 
was promised a cake to run before the crowd and cry 
Noe'l! 



i64 JEANNE D'ARC 

It was supposed that Charles would meet the vic- 
tors at Orleans, and the burghers decorated their 
streets to receive him ; but he was being happily en- 
tertained at Sully by La Tr^mouille, who probably 
did nothing to hasten his departure. Finally he set 
out toward Chateauneuf, and on June 22 the Maid, 
impatient to be at work again, met him at St. Benoit- 
sur-Loire. Charles showered her with kind words ; 
he was sorry for the great labor she had had; he 
begged her to take some rest. 

His greeting fell in a cold mist of discouragement on 
the ardent soul that longed only for action, and more 
action, until France should have a king and stand 
free of her enemies ; and disregarding such futile 
sympathy, the girl broke down and wept. 

" Ah, gentle dauphin," said she, " doubt no longer. 
The whole realm shall be yours, and you shall soon 
be crowned." And as the guerdon of her labor, she 
besought him to forgive the constable for the good 
will he had shown, and to accept the aid he offered 
France. 

Richemont had remained at Beaugency to await 
the upshot of such embassies. The Maid, d'Alengon, 
and other captains were to plead his cause ; and two 
of his own gentlemen went to La Tr^mouille begging 
him to let their master serve the king. But the favor- 
ite, whose word was law, had no notion of giving his 
enemy footing at court, and all Richemont's over- 



GIEN 165 

tures were rejected. After attempting the siege of a 
little fortress near Beaugency, he withdrew to his 
own estates, and a good soldier was lost to Charles. 

But all France was roused, and it looked as if La 
Tr^mouille could not long hold affairs in the balance 
that best suited him ; yet for the time he was all 
powerful, and he never ceased intriguing against any 
possible rival, whether Maid or peer. Friends were 
alienated, opportunity refused, delay dampened the 
enthusiasm of renewed hope; and "no one dared 
to speak at that hour against the Sire de la Trd- 
mouille, however clearly each might see that the 
fault lay with him," wrote wise old Perceval de 
Cagny. 

The Duke of Brittany, brother to Richemont, had 
kept out of the national quarrel, and devoted himself 
to the affairs of his duchy ; but now he may have 
reflected that if heaven were declaring for the lilies, 
he best open communication with the dauphin's court, 
and one day his confessor. Brother Yves Milbeau, 
and Hermine, a herald-at-arms, presented themselves 
to the Maid. 

*'Have you indeed come in the name of God to 
succor the king ? " was their question. 

"Yes." 

" In that case, our rightful lord, the Duke of Brit- 
tany, is disposed to aid the king," announced Brother 
Yves Milbeau. "He cannot come himself, for he is in 



i66 JEANNE D'ARC 

feeble health ; but he will send his eldest son with a 
great army." 

Jeanne was all undazzled by the large and easy 
offer; she even may have suspected the real object 
of the visit to be gratification of ducal curiosity about 
herself. 

" The king, not the Duke of Brittany, is my right- 
ful lord," she returned, "and the duke should not 
have delayed so long in sending his people to do their 
feudal service." With this amazing answer the mes- 
sengers returned to their master, who never sent his 
son and the army. But, be she divinely sent or not, 
he recognized the Maid for a personage, and at a later 
time when his ambassadors visited the court, sent her 
a dagger and some fine horses. 

Gien was made the new rendezvous for troops, and 
Jeanne returned to Orleans to bring up the men and 
supplies left there. On Friday, June 24, she was ready 
for the march. 

"Sound the trumpets and mount," said she to 
d'Alengon. "It is time to go to the gentle King 
Charles to start him on the way for his consecra- 
tion." 

But it was easier to gather an army than to move 
the king, who was at his old pastime of holding "many 
and long councils." Some of the captains wished to 
make an expedition into Normandy, others would 
have besieged the Burgundian towns of Cosne and 



GIEN 167 

La Charity on the upper Loire. The councillors 
worked for delay ; the Maid was all for immediate 
action, and told the king, with some point, that he 
must go forward boldly and fear nothing, for if he 
would go forward like a man, he would soon obtain 
all his kingdom. And when his councillors told her 
that there were " many cities and walled towns and 
strongholds well guarded by English and Burgun- 
dians " in the way, she answered : 

" I know it well, and all that I hold as naught." 

Then, worn out with futile discussion, she left the 
court and went out to the fields to camp with her 
men, who said only that "they would go wherever 
she wished to go." 

" By my staff, I will lead the gentle King Charles 
and his company safely, and he shall be consecrated 
at Reims," was her answer to them. 

Knights and squires, with companies small or great, 
had come pouring in from all parts of loyal France to 
share this adventure for a crown. Many a gentleman 
had been beggared by the wars, and of pay there was 
little or none. A man-at-arms might get two or three 
francs maintenance ; while laborers and artisans and 
such humble folk must serve for mere rations. But 
rich and poor came to Gien : great lords and their 
well-equipped men, decked out in all the panoply of 
war, and impoverished knights afoot or riding on the 
sorry nags they could pick up in the country, eager 



i68 JEANNE D'ARC 

to serve as archers or knifemen if needs be, "for each 
one had great hope that by means of this Jeanne 
much good should come to the realm of France." 

With men of such temper to back her, the Maid, in 
spite of king and court, was sure to have her will ; 
and never for a moment did she waver in her purpose 
to march to Reims. On June 25, she had written a 
letter to the "gentle, loyal Frenchmen of Tournai," 
the one town of northern France faithful to the 
dauphin. She told them of her victories, and prayed 
them to hold themselves in readiness to attend the 
consecration of the king at Reims, "where shortly 
we shall be . . . and may God give you grace to main- 
tain the good quarrel of the realm of France." She 
wrote, also, to Philip of Burgundy, bidding him to 
his feudal duty at the crowning of his king. But per- 
haps letter and herald were intercepted at the court, 
for she never heard of them again. 

Marie of Anjou also came up to Gien to take her 
part in the expedition ; but as French queens were 
more often crowned at Paris than at Reims, and the 
march must be a hard one at best, it was decided to 
leave her behind, and she returned to Bourges. 

The Maid and her men had crossed the river, as 
if to dare the king to follow, and on June 29, whether 
from shame of his faint heart or because the army 
could no longer be held in check, the king, " after 
many words," took the road to Reims ; and lords and 



GIEN 169 

squires, men-at-arms and footsoldiers, councillors and 
priests, the Maid and her household, set out on their 
quest for a crown. The summer sun looked down 
upon the glittering train as it wound by vineyard 
and wheatfield, — on tossing standards and gleaming 
armor, on knights cloaked in every color under 
heaven, horses hampered with steel casing and rich 
caparison, archers in brown and green, heralds in 
gay trappings, — and by the king's side, rode the 
Maid, "armed all in white." In the dark days of 
early spring, she and Bertrand de Poulengy and Jean 
de Metz had come down this road on their way to 
Chinon. 

**Will you really do all you say?" Jean de Metz 
had asked. And in fashion more wonderful than 
dreams of chivalry, she was fulfilling her pledge. 
Through the wisdom and unyielding purpose of a 
girl, heaven was working its miracle for France ; but 
for her, victorious English armies would have been 
having their will in the valley of the Loire, and 
Charles would have been not even the ** little King 
of Bourges." 



XV 

CHAMPAGNE 

AUXERRE was in sad dilemma as the French 
army came marching down the road from 
Gien. The town belonged to Burgundy, 
whose duke was hostile to Charles ; yet if it did not 
receive the king, it stood a good chance to be taken 
and sacked. The townsmen determined to play for 
time, and began the game by paying La Tr^mouille 
a round sum to let them alone. Then they closed 
their gates, and urged the army to move forward, 
giving some vague promise of submission if Troyes 
and Chalons and Reims should acknowledge the 
king. They even fed the hungry men, in return for 
hard cash, and for three days the parleying went on. 
The soldiers were greedy for pillage, the captains 
were reluctant to leave this hostile city in their rear, 
the Maid, as usual, was eager for attack ; but La 
Tremouille earned his two thousand ^cus d'or, and 
the army, much against its will, crossed the Yonne 
and entered Champagne. 

The whole province, many of whose towns were 
held by small Anglo-Burgundian garrisons, was in an 
uproar. Messengers scurried about from city to city, 



CHAMPAGNE 171 

and there was much swagger about resisting to the 
death, and encouraging of the other fellow to put 
his best foot foremost. As a matter of fact, several 
of the towns had sent secret embassies to Charles ; 
but none wanted to be the first to submit, and each 
dreaded to be the last. Clouds of rumors came sweep- 
ing into Reims, the pivotal city: the dauphin was 
marching by way of Montargis (he was sixty miles 
from there) ; Auxerre had fallen, and four thousand 
put to the sword ; Chalons swore to resist with all 
its power, and hinted of treachery at Troyes ; and 
the men of Troyes, most militant of all, would fight 
"to death, as they had all sworn by the precious 
Body of Jesus Christ to do." 

Troyes had the most to fear, for within its walls, 
Queen Isabeau had intrigued with England and 
carried through her treaty which should disinherit 
Charles ; and here his sister Catherine had been 
married to Henry in the old Church of St. John, 
while his wicked mother, robed in blue damask and 
black velvet furred with miniver, witnessed this 
sealing of the compact which she had brought about 
for her son's undoing. And Troyes merchants had 
hastened to range themselves on the side of Bur- 
gundy and England, for they must be friendly with 
their neighbor, or who would come to their great 
fairs to buy cloth ? And England held the ports of 
the Seine where they shipped goods for foreign parts. 



172 JEANNE D'ARC 

At St. Phal, fifteen miles short of Troyes,the army 
halted and Charles and the Maid sent letters to 
the burghers. The king demanded that they should 
"render him the obedience they owed him, and 
he would make no difficulty about things past for 
which they might fear he should take vengeance; 
that was not his will, but that they should govern 
themselves toward their sovereign as they ought, 
and he would forget all and hold them in good 
grace." While the Maid summoned them to their 
allegiance in the name of the sovereign Lord of all. 

** Very dear and good friends, if such you be, lords, 
burghers and citizens of the city of Troyes, Jeanne 
the Maid sends word to you on behalf of the King 
of Heaven, her rightful and sovereign Lord, in Whose 
kingly service she is each day, that you shall give 
true obedience and recognition to the gentle King of 
France, who will shortly be at Reims and Paris, come 
what may, and his good towns of the holy realm, by 
the aid of King Jesus. Loyal Frenchmen, come before 
King Charles without fail, and fear not for your 
bodies, or your goods, thus doing ; and if this you do 
not, I promise you and certify upon your lives that 
we shall enter by the aid of God into all the towns 
belonging to the holy kingdom, and there will make 
good peace, come what may. To God I commend you. 
May God guard you, if He so pleases. Respond 
quickly." 



CHAMPAGNE 173 

Next morning, the burghers posted off copies of 
these letters to Reims, and at five o'clock in the 
afternoon their own story and comment followed. 
The royal army had appeared at nine o'clock that 
morning, they wrote, and had summoned them to 
surrender ; but they had pleaded their oath to the 
Duke of Burgundy not to open their gates to "any 
stronger than they save by his express command ; " 
then each had taken his place upon the wall, with 
the firm intention of resisting to death. And they 
begged those of Reims to let the regent and the 
duke know of their necessity. They said Jeanne the 
Maid was a " coquarde^' a mad woman full of the devil, 
whose letter had neither rhyme nor reason, " ne ryme 
ny raison; " they had thrown it into the fire without 
answer, only laughing at it. A certain cordelier had 
sworn by his faith that he had seen three or four 
burghers from Reims who had told the dauphin they 
would open their gates to him, and they best be on 
their guard against treachery. 

At this time there happened to be at Troyes one 
Friar Richard, who had made pilgrimage to the 
Holy Land, where he had found the Jews making 
ready for the coming of their Messiah ; thereupon he 
had inferred the end of the world to be at hand, and 
returned to France to warn his countrymen to for- 
sake their sins and prepare for eternity. At Paris 
people had slept in the fields to be near the open air 



174 JEANNE D'ARC 

pulpit where he delivered daylong discourses. At 
Boulogne, men had made bonfires of their gaming 
tables and billiard balls, women had burned their 
gewgaws and horned caps, and even their mandra- 
gora roots, dressed up like misshapen dolls, which 
had been bought from the witches at great price and 
were sure to bring wealth and good luck. Jeanne 
once said that she had heard that a mandragora grew 
at the foot of a hazel tree in the Bois Chesnu and 
that it would make money come, but she put no faith 
in it. During the winter. Brother Richard had been 
preaching his mission in Champagne, and at Troyes 
he had bidden them : "Sow beans, good people, sow 
beans ; for he who should come will come very 
shortly." The obedient townsmen had sown the fields 
about the city, and now the amazing end of their 
labor was that the dauphin's hungry army was eating 
up their beans. 

Brother Richard either wished for a nearer view of 
the famous Armagnac Witch, or he was sent out by 
the burghers to exorcise the evil spirit who would in- 
vade their city, and he made his way to the French 
camp, whence, as he approached, Jeanne rode out to 
meet him. He sprinkled holy water before him and 
made the sign of the cross. 

"Come on boldly," she cried, laughing. "I shall 
not fly away." Six months before at Vaucouleurs, 
Maitre Jean Fournier had, to her righteous indigna- 



CHAMPAGNE 175 

tion, exorcised her ; but she could only laugh at 
quaking Brother Richard. 

The story goes that he fell on his knees before her, 
when, to show herself no holier than he, she also 
knelt. And he returned to Troyes to sing praises of 
the Maid of the Armagnacs ; he said, if she liked, 
she could throw her men over the walls into the city. 
And from this time he followed in her train until his 
fancy was caught by a new wonder. But when Paris 
heard of his defection to the enemy, his converts 
cursed God and the saints, says the chronicle, threw 
his medals stamped with the name of Jesus into the 
Seine, and returned to their pleasure and their vice. 

The army had approached Troyes, and several 
days were passed in parleying and skirmishes. Reg- 
nault de Chartres was for retreating ; he said that 
here, nearly a hundred miles from their base, they 
were without supplies and artillery necessary for 
pressing the siege, and Troyes had sworn to resist 
to the death. On July 6, the dauphin bade him call 
a meeting of the council. Nearly all were against 
attack ; the boldest were for passing the place as they 
had Auxerre. But the old chancellor, Robert le Magon, 
said that to his mind they should call in the Maid; 
for the king had not set out upon this enterprise by 
reason of his great number of men-at-arms, or the 
money he had to pay them, or because the adventure 
had seemed to him possible : but by counsel of the 



176 JEANNE D'ARC 

Maid, who said always that he should go to his crown- 
ing at Reims, for such was the will of God. 

Jeanne was summoned before them; she knocked 
loudly at the door, made her accustomed salutation 
to the king, and the archbishop laid the reasons for 
retreat before her. 

She turned to Charles. 

" Will you believe what I shall tell you ? " 

" If you say something profitable and reasonable, 
it will be gladly believed," was his cautious response. 

Again she asked : 

" Shall I be believed ? " She had too often seen her 
advice but the beginning of endless talk. 

"According to what you say," reiterated the king. 

" Gentle King of France, if you will remain here 
before your city of Troyes, it will come to your alle- 
giance within two days, either by force or favor, and 
greatly will false Burgundy be astounded." 

** Jeanne," said the archbishop, " were we sure of 
having it in six days, it would be well to wait. But 
are you sure of it ? " 

"Have no doubt," was her answer, and she re- 
turned to the camp, where she mounted, and leading 
the army across the river, pitched their tents close 
to the walls of the town. Then she set her men, 
gentle and simple, at work collecting faggots and 
doors, tables, windows, anything that could be used to 
fill up the trenches or serve as shelters for men and 



CHAMPAGNE 177 

guns. " And so well did she labor during the night," 
said Dunois, "that next day the bishop and other 
men of the city, all trembling and quaking, came to 
make their submission to the king." 

When they saw the preparations of the Maid, their 
awful resolution to resist had been consumed in the 
blaze of its own fire; and moreover, their good burgher 
commonsense was on the side of the dauphin. It was 
easy for Frenchmen to believe, in spite of English 
treaties, that Charles was their rightful lord, and 
that through him only could come lasting peace ; and 
peace was good for the silk trade. Moreover, God 
Himself was fighting for the dauphin through this 
Maid who had worked such marvels at Orleans and 
before their own walls ; some of them had seen a 
multitude of white butterflies hovering about her 
standard. Who should resist God and the right? 
Not they. 

Charles ennobled the bishop for his part in the 
day's work; the churchmen who had held benefices 
from his father were confirmed in their rights, and 
those holding from Henry took out letters from 
Charles. All was peace and joy. The garrison were 
to march out with their arms and goods as at Beau- 
gency ; but their *' goods " proved to be French pris- 
oners, and Jeanne stopped them at the gate. 

" In the name of God, you shall not have them," 
she cried ; and Charles had to pay their ransom. 



178 JEANNE D'ARC 

About nine o'clock on the morning of July lo, the 
king entered the city, and with him, ** the lords and 
captains, well dressed and mounted, a fair sight to 
see, and the Sire de Lore remained in the fields in 
charge of the army. And the next day all passed by 
the said city in fine order ; whereat those of the city 
were very joyous, and made oath to the king to be 
good and loyal, and such they have always shown 
themselves since." Thus ends the Adventure of the 
Bean City. 

Letters of a different complexion were now com- 
ing into Reims. From Troyes, Regnault de Chartres, 
their archbishop, had summoned his people to sub- 
mit to the king; and the chastened burghers, thrown 
from their high horse, had explained to their friends 
of Reims how the king had " shown very clearly and 
very prudently the reasons for which he had come 
to them." He is "the prince of the greatest discre- 
tion and understanding and valor that was ever born 
to the noble house of France ; " and they counsel 
Reims to follow their example and hasten to make 
full submission to the royal prodigy. 

But Chatillons still whistled to keep its courage 
up. A squire of the town had been at Troyes and 
had seen Jeanne the Maid, and he "swore by his 
faith she was the simplest thing he had ever seen, 
and that her deeds had neither rhyme nor reason, 
not more than the greatest fool he had ever seen. 



CHAMPAGNE 179 

She did n't compare as a valiant woman with Madame 
d'Or " (a lady at the Burgundy court whose bright 
hair is said to have suggested the name for the Order 
of the Golden Fleece). And he said the enemy only 
made fools of those who doubted it. 

Chalons, however, made haste to follow in the 
footsteps of Troyes, and when the army approached, 
a company of burghers, headed by the bishop, came 
out to make their submission ; and Chalons, also, 
posted off its story to Reims. Charles having sent 
them a herald, the burghers wrote, a deputation 
had met him, and it was determined to render him 
entire obedience as to their sovereign, and they had 
given up the keys of the city, which he had graciously 
accepted. He was "sweet, gracious, pitiful and com- 
passionate, of handsome person, noble bearing and 
high understanding." They would n't have acted 
otherwise for anything ; and they, too, counselled 
Reims, without delay, to do the best thing which 
could be and thus know great honor and joy. 

Reims could do no less than join the happy pro- 
cession. Her citizens, also, had made vows of un- 
dying devotion to England and Burgundy, and they 
had recalled the captain of their garrison, who was at 
Chateau-Thierry. But they limited his escort to forty 
or fifty horsemen, and when, with some reason, he 
declined the adventure of holding the city with so 
few men, suggesting three or four hundred at the 



i8o JEANNE D'ARC 

least, they refused to admit him. They read his let- 
ters, which dangled before their eyes the picture of a 
great English army disembarking at Boulogne. It 
might reach Reims, he said, in six weeks ; but they 
reflected that Charles and his twelve thousand men 
and the wonder-working Maid were within a few 
leagues of the city. Other letters came with vague 
promises of help ; letters, and more letters, were 
coming in from the neighboring towns ; the burghers 
must have been busy with their correspondence in 
those two weeks of July. They ordered a procession 
for moving the people ** to peace, love and obedience," 
whatever, in the circumstances, that might mean. 
On July 12, the clerk of the council began his minute 
of the day : "After my Lord of Ch^tillon was shown 
how he, being captain, and the lords and multitude 
of people who — " He got no farther ; it needed a 
more skilful clerk than he to write the story, when 
his council at the same moment was swearing loyalty 
to England and planning to receive Charles without 
a struggle. 

On July 1 6, when Charles was within four leagues 
of the city, at Sept-Saulx, a fortress built two hun- 
dred years before by a fighting predecessor of Reg- 
nault de Chartres, a deputation of the burghers came 
to meet him. The citizens had said ; " We will live 
and die with the council and leading men, and 
by their good advice and counsel we will abide in 



CHAMPAGNE i8i 

good union and peace, without murmur or answer, so 
it is not by the advice and ordering of the captain of 
Reims or his lieutenant." They had foreseen the way 
the cat would jump ; and now their councillors came 
to offer the king their full and entire obedience. 



XVI 

REIMS 

IN the expedition to Reims, the Maid, as usual, 
had no official command ; she " went with the 
army," as she had gone to Orleans; and her 
"company" meant the military household Charles 
had provided for her at Tours, and such other men- 
at-arms as elected to follow her standard. The white 
penoncels which these men fastened to their lances 
may explain the "cloud of white butterflies" re- 
marked by the round-eyed burghers of Troyes. But 
she was the mainspring of the army, if not its ac- 
credited captain; her inspiration and discernment 
made her the natural leader in council chamber and 
camp, as at Orleans and in the Loire campaign. Yet 
"all agreed that they never perceived anything which 
might lead them to think that Jeanne attributed to 
herself the glory of her wonderful deeds. She as- 
cribed all to God, and so far as she could, resisted 
when the people sought to honor her or give her the 
glory." She marched with the king and fought his 
battles as they had never before been fought : "Work 
and God will work," was her sound rule of action; 
yet she lived in daily communion with heaven as 



REIMS 183 

truly as she had done at Domremy. She prayed her- 
self, and tried to inspire others with her faith ; she 
confessed often and took the Sacrament, and she 
never failed to remind her men of their true service 
to her Lord. "She had the church bells rung for half 
an hour at vespers," said Dunois, " and had an an- 
them in honor of the Blessed Mother of God sung 
by the mendicant friars." "It was her custom, as 
soon as she came to a town," wrote a chronicler, " to 
go to the church to make her orisons, and she made 
the priests sing an anthem to our Lady; and when 
she had made her prayers and orisons, she went to 
her lodging, which was commonly provided for her 
in the most respectable house that could be found, 
where there was some worthy woman. No man ever 
saw her bathe; that and all her personal need she 
accomplished in a decent secrecy. And if the chance 
fell that she must camp in the fields with men of 
war, never did she disarm herself." 

In that age of licence and coarse habit, her mod- 
esty and temperance seemed to have impressed men 
as much as her prowess in war. "All the soldiers 
held her as sacred ; and so well did she bear herself 
in warfare, in words and in deeds, as a follower of 
God, that no evil could be said of her." "She was 
humble, simple and chaste, and devoted to God and 
the church," said Jean Beauharnays, brother-in-law 
of Louis de Coutes. " I was always much comforted 



1 84 JEANNE D'ARC 

in talking' with her." And Louis himself testified 
that *'she had always most sober habits ; many times 
I saw her eat nothing during a whole day but a mor- 
sel of bread. I was astonished that she ate so little. 
When she was in her lodging, she ate only twice a 
day." At every court in Europe, men were eager 
to hear of "The Maid Jeanne of France." On June 
21, Perceval de Boulainvilliers, a great man of the 
French court, had written to the Duke of Milan: 
"There is something manly in her carriage; she 
speaks little, and shows a marvellous prudence in 
word and in deed. She has a woman's voice and a 
slender figure; she eats little, and drinks of wine still 
less ; she delights in riding and in beautiful armor, 
and although she loves well lords and men-at-arms, 
she shrinks from a crowd and the talk of many." 
" Never has been seen such strength to bear fatigue; 
she can rest six days and six nights under weight of 
arms, without removing a single piece of armor," he 
added, with her campaign of the Loire fresh in mind. 
" She loved everything that a good Christian ought 
to love," asseverated Jean d'Aulon; "and especially 
did she love any right valiant fellow whom she knew 
to be of pure life." And she tamed her fiery young 
duke as easily as cut-throat La Hire. " She reproved 
me much and strongly when I sometimes swore," re- 
marked d'Alengon, "and when I saw her, I refrained 
from swearing." Dunois spoke for all when he said : 



REIMS 185 

"Neither I nor others, when we were near her, had 
ever an evil thought, for there was in her something 
divine." " And she was very reverent in hearing the 
divine service of our Lord," said d' Aulon. " On holy 
days she would hear high mass, wherever she might 
be, with the hours following, and other days low mass. 
Always, when possible, did she hear mass daily." 
In her day at Troyes, she had stood as godmother, 

— perhaps in the beautiful little church of St. Urbain, 
or in the fine old choir of the half finished cathedral, 

— resplendent in her gleaming armor, while she 
held the little child in her arms with a woman's ten- 
der touch. And in later months she did like service. 
"Usually," she said, " I gave to the boys the name of 
Charles, in honor of my king, and to the girls, Jeanne. 
At other times, I gave such names as pleased the 
mothers." She was used to babies; she had been 
godmother for Nicolas, son of Gdrardin and her gossip 
Isabellette, and hardly seven months had passed since 
she nursed Durand Laxart's wife and child at Burey- 
le-Petit. 

At Chalons and Reims some of these familiar ties 
were to be renewed ; for old friends had ridden up 
from the valley of the Meuse to witness the astound- 
ing triumph of little Jeanne d'Arc, the good, simple 
girl, who had been so free of loving service to them 
all. One of her godfathers, Jean Morel, met her at 
Chalons, and she made him a present of a red robe 



1 86 JEANNE D'ARC 

she had been wearing, — perhaps the fine cramoisy 
levite of Orleans. Gerardin d'^pinal was also there; 
and to him she said, " I fear nothing but treachery," 
a hint that her keen eye had already marked the men 
who worked secretly against her, — La Tr^mouille, 
and smooth-tongued Regnault de Chartres. 

At Reims, she was to have the great happiness of 
seeing faithful Durand Laxart, and Jacques d'Arc 
himself. Nothing is said of the meeting; but it is 
not hard to picture the stern old father's pride in his 
girl, whose inheritance of sturdy commonsense and 
sound judgment was playing no small part in the 
work she did for France ; and simple Durand Laxart, 
big with joy that all his faith was justified. Durand 
met the king himself, and told him the story of Dom- 
remy and Vaucouleurs, of Robert de Baudricourt, 
who bade him box the girl's ears and send her home, 
of the visit to Charles of Lorraine, and then how the 
Maid and her escort set out for "the place where the 
dauphin was." Husson le Maitre, a man of her coun- 
try, was then living at Reims. The Maid's father and 
her brother Pierre visited him, and were friendly with 
him and his wife as compatriots ; they called his wife 
"neighbor." "I was in my own neighborhood when 
Jeanne went to Vaucouleurs," said Husson. And 
with the pride of the natural man, he reminded his 
friends that "I then said it was by the grace of 
God, and that Jeanne was led by the spirit of God." 



REIMS 187 

Jacques d'Arc was in holiday mood; he stayed at 
Reims until mid-September, and was the guest of the 
town at the Inn of the Zebra. Alis, widow of Raulin 
Mariau, landlady of I'Ane Raye, was paid twenty- 
four livres for his board, and the burghers gave him 
a horse to ride back to Domremy. We hear no more 
of Jacques d'Arc, except the poignant word that his 
heart broke when he heard of the Maid's death. 

On the morning of Saturday, July 16, Regnault 
de Chartres, Archbishop of Reims, entered his city, 
and at sunset put himself at the head of the town dig- 
nitaries to receive his royal master. " Noel ! Noel !^' 
cried the burghers of Reims, aglow with arduous 
loyalty. And with the king rode " Jeanne the Maid, 
who was much regarded by all." 

It was the tradition that coronations should be sol- 
emnized on a Sunday, and it was already Saturday 
night. But Reims had no intention of entertaining a 
king and his army for a full week, and every man in 
the town, priest and layman, set to work to prepare 
cathedral and city for the ceremony next day. All the 
royal insignia was in England's hands at St. Denis, 
and they had to ransack the cathedral treasury for a 
crown ; perhaps Charles had not redeemed the gold 
fleurons of his own, for he had not brought it from 
Bourges. There was talk of a richer crown, possibly 
that of St. Louis, which the archbishop withheld ; 
and the story went that Jeanne compelled him to 



i88 JEANNE D'ARC 

give it up, although not in time for the coronation. 
If this be true, it would have fanned his latent jeal- 
ousy into bitter personal hatred, to which later he 
gave fitting expression. The story is in character, 
for he sequestrated the gifts of a silver vase and a 
purse of thirteen gold medals which Charles had 
made the chapter of the cathedral, until he was forced 
to disgorge when precedent was cited to prove them 
the property of the chapter. These medals were said 
to have been struck in honor of the Maid, with her 
device, a hand holding a sword, and the inscription, 
Consilio firmata Dei. 

At nine o'clock on the morning of Sunday, July 17, 
the great cathedral was filled to its doors. Gorgeous 
colors streamed from the windows to fill the upper 
air with light and glory ; the floor shone and rustled 
like a field of tulips in a breeze, as lords and men-at- 
arms in velvet and cloth-of-gold, satin and silver, here 
a glint of steel, there a flame of crimson and azure, 
waited for the moment. At the foot of the high altar, 
stood Charles the Dauphin, his doublet cut through 
at breast and shoulder for the mystic anointing with 
St. Remi's oil, his robe, blue as the sky, sown with 
golden fleur-de-lis. 

Suddenly there was a clatter and clash of hoof and 
steel, and the fire of the great rose windows above 
the west door struck down upon a gay cavalcade : 
Boussac and Rais, Gravile and Admiral de Coulent, 



REIMS 189 

armed cap-a-pie and with banners floating ; they had 
been to fetch the Abbot of St. Remi, who rode be- 
fore them on his palfrey, and in his hand he bore the 
sainte ampoule for the sacring. They dismounted at 
the choir, and the abbot gave over the chrism to his 
archbishop, Regnault de Chartres. Then the king-at- 
arms summoned the twelve peers of France to serve 
their king. But of six lay peers, only Brittany and 
Burgundy would have had the right to respond ; and 
d'Alen^on, Clermont, and Vendome, Guy de Laval, 
La Tr^mouille and Maill^, filled the vacant places. 
Of the clerical peers, the Archbishop of Reims, the 
Bishops of Chalons and Laon were present; the others 
were supplied. In the absence of Richemont, Con- 
stable of France, d'Albret held the sword ; d'Alen- 
^on, in place of " false Burgundy," dubbed Charles a 
knight ; the archbishop anointed him with the holy 
oil of St. Remi, and administered the oath. Taking 
the crown from the altar, he raised it high above the 
king's head ; the twelve peers of the realm, closing 
in, held it firm. Trumpets rang out until the vaulted 
height answered again; shouts of Noel! proclaimed 
the King of France. 

But one figure there was never before seen at royal 
sacring. At the king's side stood the Maid, in her 
silver mail, glorious as St. Michael in the jewelled 
morning light. In one hand she bore her standard, 
whereon an angel offered the lilies of France to the 



190 JEANNE D'ARC 

God of all. " It had borne the pain, it should share 
the glory," she said. Jean d'Aulon and Jean Pasquerel 
were near her. 

" And always during the mystery, the Maid stood 
next the king, her standard in her hand, and it was 
a right fair thing to see the gallant bearing of the 
king and also of the Maid," she "who was in truth 
the cause of the crowning of the king and of all the 
assembly." And " when the Maid saw that the king 
was consecrated and crowned, she knelt, and clasped 
his knees and kissed his feet, weeping the while. 

"'Gentle king,* said she, *now is accomplished 
the will of God, Who decreed that I should raise the 
siege of Orleans, and bring you to this city of Reims 
for your holy sacring, thereby showing that you are 
the true king and that to you the realm of France 
should belong.* And right great pity came upon all," 
and many wept as she spoke. 

So they, who saw her that day at the zenith of her 
earthly glory, tell of the Maid. She, also, should share 
the honor, who had borne the pain. 

It had been clear to all that the deeds this girl 
proclaimed were the only ones to save the realm of 
France. Charles must be crowned and consecrated 
at Reims in the traditional way, or he never could be 
king in the eyes of his people ; the siege of Orleans 
must be speedily raised, or those fair provinces of 
middle France would be lost and the whole country 



REIMS 191 

become but a tributary of England ; and it was clearly 
desirable that the English should go to their homes. 
No one needed to be told these things ; but it was 
the wonder of a peasant girl announcing that she had 
been sent from God for the doing, and the swift ful- 
filling of her pledges in spite of clogging weakness 
of support, it was the inspiration of this beautiful 
eager girl working through her enkindling personal- 
ity that roused France from the torpor of irresolution 
and discouragement. The country cried aloud for a 
leader, and heaven answered. It was the will of God 
that France should live. 



XVII 

ILE DE FRANCE 

AT the coronation, Rais was made marshal of 
France, La Tremouille and Guy de Laval 
received the title of count, La Hire was 
granted the county of Longueville in Normandy, 
with all its appurtenances. The only guerdon that 
Jeanne asked from the king was that Domremy and 
Greux should be perpetually exempt from taxation ; 
and he granted the boon " in favor of and at the 
request of our well-beloved Jeanne the Maid, and for 
the great, high, notable and profitable service which 
she has done us and does each day toward the 
recovery of our kingdom." Honor was to whom 
honor was due on that great day. Until the time of 
Louis XV, against the two villages was written in 
the tax book : "Nothing, for the sake of the Maid," 
"NMnty a la Puce lie" 

Faithful Reims was rewarded by a carnival of 
feasting, at whose expense record does not show. 
After the coronation, there was a great dinner in 
the archbishop's palace, where the king lodged, and 
d'Alengon and Clermont served their royal master. 
The tables stretched to the streets, an ancient bronze 



ILE DE FRANCE 193 

stag was filled with wine and stood up in the public 
road, and Reims ate and drank its fill. 

While men caroused, the Maid was at work. She 
always held her vision of a united France, — pardon 
for Frenchmen, no quarter for England ; and on this 
Sunday afternoon she dictated her second letter to 
Philip of Burgundy : 

" High and redoubtable prince, Duke of Burgundy, 
Jeanne the Maid desires you on the part of the King 
of Heaven, my rightful and sovereign Lord, that the 
King of France and you make good, firm peace, 
which shall long endure. Pardon one another, heart- 
ily, wholly, as loyal Christians should ; and if you 
wish to fight, go against the Saracens. Prince of 
Burgundy, I pray and beseech and desire you, as 
humbly as I may that you war no more on the holy 
realm of France. . . . All those who war on the 
holy realm of France fight against King Jesus, King 
of Heaven and all the world, my true and sovereign 
Lord. And I pray and beseech you, with joined 
hands, fight not against us. . . . Know of a surety 
that whatever number of people you lead against us, 
they shall gain nothing, and it will be great pity . . . 
of the blood that shall flow from those who come 
against us." And again she prays "God to bring 
about a good peace." 

The councillors had probably had a finger in the 
Burgundy pie, and on this same day an embassy 



194 JEANNE D'ARC 

from the duke arrived at Reims, as a move in his 
hazardous game of balancing France and England 
for the gain of Burgundy. Charles's fortunes were 
rising, so Burgundy was equipping a force to hold 
Paris for Bedford, and was sending him recruits from 
Picardy, while his ambassadors should delay the king 
with talk of peace. On the fourteenth, he had once 
more recited the wrongs of his house in Paris, calling 
for vengeance for the "blood of Montereau" ; on the 
seventeenth, his envoys came to Charles. 

Bedford was bending every energy to rush troops 
into France. He had appealed for aid to his uncle, 
Cardinal Beaufort, the richest prelate in the world, 
who had an army ready equipped to fight the heretic 
Hussites in Bohemia, and consented to lend it to 
Bedford for the subduing of the Armagnac Witch by 
the way. Bedford wished for time, and Burgundy 
played his hand with skill. His ambassadors, with 
their vague promises of peace, kept Charles for four 
days at Reims, when the plan had been to set out 
for Paris on the eighteenth. Had this been done, he 
could have swept the country clean before Beaufort 
had time to land his crusaders. 

On the twenty-first, however, Charles made the 
traditional visit to the Abbey of St. Marcoul to touch 
for "king's evil," and on the next day he entered 
the little walled town of Vailly, which belonged to 
Regnault de Chartres. Here the citizens of Laon 



ILE DE FRANCE 195 

came to make their obeisance, a deputation from 
Soissons, also, delivered up the keys of their city; 
and people were repeating a rumored prophecy of 
Engelide, daughter of an old King of Hungary: 
" Many shall make their peace, and many are the 
keys which shall return to the hand that forged 
them." 

Soissons greeted the king with shouts of Noel! and 
presented him with two fish, six sheep, and six meas- 
ures of wine, pleading the poverty induced by war 
for the smallness of the gifts. 

The French captains would have liked to march on 
Compi^gne, the Orleans of the north, which was the 
key to unlock the great province of the He de France. 
While Burgundy held that key, he had a free road 
back and forth between Paris and the Low Countries. 
Negotiations were opened with the city, which was 
making some cautious show of reluctance and would 
have yielded without a blow; but the men of the 
court were already deflecting the army toward the 
Loire, and it was apparent that someone was being 
paid to keep up the futile game that followed. In 
four or five days, Charles was travelling due south to 
Chateau-Thierry, whose garrison was allowed to join 
Bedford, while a fifteen days' truce was made with 
Burgundy, and there was some talk of his delivering 
over Paris at its end. Burgundy was making time for 
Paris to prepare its defence; he entered the city 



196 JEANNE D'ARC 

under safe conduct from the king, promptly allied 
himself with Bedford, and used the safe conduct on 
his return to Picardy and Flanders. 

" With truces so made, I am not content and I do 
not know that I shall hold to them," wrote Jeanne to 
Reims, which had become alarmed by rumors that 
Charles was to abandon northern France and return 
to the Loire. " If I do keep the truce, it will be only 
for the king's honor. ... I pray you never to doubt 
the good quarrel I hold for the blood royal ; I promise 
you I shall never abandon it so long as I live." And 
she adds that she will keep the army ready in case 
peace is not made. 

Charles had won his race for the crown, but his 
moves now seem to have gone wild; ten days* 
play had brought the army only ten miles nearer 
Paris, and on July 25, Bedford had marched his 
army into the city, and then had set out to the 
south to watch Charles. The French army was now 
at Provins, about as far to the southeast of Paris as 
Soissons was to the northeast. The peace faction 
had the upper hand, and it had been decided to cross 
the Seine at Bray, and make for the valley of the 
Loire. But they were checkmated by a strong Anglo- 
Burgundian force which had taken possession of the 
bridgehead at night; whereat the Maid and her 
friends, d'Alengon, Rene of Bar, who had now joined 
Charles, Guy de Laval and many other captains, were 



ILE DE FRANCE 197 

"very joyful and well content, for this decision to 
cross the river was against their will and desire." 

Then the army was marched back to Chateau- 
Thierry and beyond ; the line was not allowed to 
curve too much toward Paris. Everywhere the people 
were pathetically glad to receive their king and his 
army. As they came to Crepy and La Fert^, Charles 
was welcomed with the usual cries of Noel ! The 
Maid was riding between Regnault de Chartres and 
Dunois. 

"Here is a good people," she said. "Never have 
I seen any who rejoiced so much at the coming of 
our noble king. How happy I should be if when my 
time comes, I might be buried here ! " 

"Jeanne," said the archbishop, "where do you ex- 
pect to die.?" 

" Where it shall please God," she answered. " I 
know the time and place no more than you. Would 
it pleased God, my Creator, that I might now lay 
down my arms and go back to serve my father and 
mother in tending their sheep with my sister and 
brothers, who would be right glad to see me." 

Here is a new note of sadness. By sheer force 
of her indomitable young will, she had dragged the 
king and his court from their slothful pleasures, 
but every step had been clogged by their indiffer- 
ence or foolish plotting; and the clear light of 
her hope began to wane a little after the high noon 



198 JEANNE D'ARC 

of Reims. "I fear nothing but treachery," she had 
told Gerardin ; and day by day she must have felt 
the tightening of those slow coils which should crush 
out the life of her desire. But she never swerved 
from the straight path of her purpose; France must 
be saved. 

On August 7, Bedford addressed a deliberately in- 
sulting letter to the king: "You who were wont to 
style yourself Dauphin of Vienne and now without 
cause call yourself king, and have devised a new un- 
dertaking against the crown and lordship of the very 
high and excellent prince and my sovereign lord, 
Henry, by grace of God, true, natural, and rightful 
King of France and England, . . . who have deceived 
the people with promises of peace, . . .who have 
accepted the help of superstitious and reprobate folk, 
a woman, disorderly and defamed, wearing man's at- 
tire, and of dissolute conduct, and an apostate and 
seditious mendicant friar" (harmless Brother Rich- 
ard). And he charges Charles with breaking the 
peace of France and England solemnly ratified by 
their kings, and with being the cause of all the 
country's misery. He professes himself anxious for 
peace, not feigned, corrupt, foresworn, like that of 
Montereau, where by Charles's fault and connivance, 
Burgundy was foully murdered ; and challenges 
Charles to a meeting, "with all the perjured rascals 
of his train," when he will listen to overtures of 



ILE DE FRANCE 199 

peace, and the matter shall be settled by means of 
peace or on the field of battle. 

The letter was deftly calculated to precipitate a 
fight, and having launched it, Bedford marched north 
to interpose his army between Paris and the king. 

At sunset, on Sunday, August 14, the two armies 
met at Mont^pilloy, and a little skirmishing was done 
before darkness fell. Bedford took advantage of the 
night to occupy a strong position, and dawn revealed 
his army drawn up in battle array, earthworks in 
front, a river in the rear, the archers protected by 
their palisade of pikes, and over the host floated the 
banners of France and England. But French chivalry 
had not forgotten the lesson of Agincourt and Ver- 
neuil, when deadly impact with the line of English 
bowmen had rolled up the heaps of slain, and they 
tried to lure the enemy from their position ; that in- 
vincible line of battle once broken, they stood some 
chance to win. But the English army kept to their 
defences, as the French themselves had held the hill 
near Beaugency the night before Patay. The Eng- 
lish were invited to come out and deploy their men 
in the plain, the army would retire to give them 
room ; the feint of a retreat was made ; Jeanne, stand- 
ard in hand, rode up to their palisade and struck it 
a ringing blow, daring the Godons to come out and 
fight. But nothing could move that glittering square 
of war. Occasionally a small body of English, mad 



200 JEANNE D'ARC 

with rage, sallied out and fell upon the jeering 
Frenchmen ; no quarter was asked or given in these 
miniature battles, and all the pent-up race hatred 
and lust for revenge was fought out, while the main 
armies looked on. The burden of the day, for France, 
was borne by the advance guard under d'Alengon, 
and a large body of skirmishers under the Maid, 
Dunois and La Hire. The rear was safely held by 
Charles and his councillors. At midday La Trd- 
mouille, gorgeously arrayed, lance in hand, bravely 
mounted on his richly caparisoned charger, cara- 
coled out on the field. One doubts his horseman- 
ship : as he struck spurs to his steed, the fat favorite 
was pitched into the midst of the English. But 
France, for her sins, did not lose him. He was picked 
out of the m^l^e, set on his horse, and withdrew, 
out of harm's way, to the solace of his master's 
company. 

In this age of chivalry, Charles was the single 
shameful example of a king who never fought with 
his men. If he could be dragged away from his idle 
dallying in chateaux, he was but a dead weight on 
the army ; and once only in a later year, did he show 
anything like personal courage in attacking an 
enemy. 

The day passed in bloody, useless skirmishing, in 
which some light fieldpieces of the French were 
captured, and the sun went down in such a haze of 



ILE DE FRANCE 201 

smoke and dust that Godon could not be distin- 
guished from Armagnac. 

On Tuesday morning, the French retreated, hop- 
ing that Bedford would follow ; but he had no more 
to gain that time, and fell back upon Senlis, and then 
Paris, where he left a strong garrison under the 
command of Louis de Luxembourg, Bishop of Th^- 
rouenne, and set out for Normandy where trouble 
was brewing. 

Somehow both sides had come to feel that the tide 
had turned again. The French army had been dis- 
heartened by its foolish marching and countermarch- 
ing of the past few weeks, and the king, absent or 
present, was a wet blanket upon any enthusiasm; 
England, on the other hand, had been gaining cour- 
age as well as strength, and Bedford had success- 
fully defied the king and the whole French army. 
His men, also, had seen that death-dealing Witch of 
the Armagnacs at close quarters, and what miracle 
had she wrought } 

The French should have followed Bedford directly 
to Paris, but instead they occupied Senlis, left a small 
force there under Vendome, and marched on to Com- 
pi^gne, fifty miles to the north. Affairs with Bur- 
gundy were going well, and here they would be nearer 
the Burgundian court at Arras, where Regnault de 
Chartres was giving evidence of his worth as a diplo- 
mat by allowing himself to be tricked by Duke Philip. 



202 JEANNE D'ARC 

Between August i8 and 22, Senlis, Compi^gne and 
Beauvais made their submission to the king ; and Com- 
pi^gne presented Guillaume de Flavy to Charles as 
the captain whom it had chosen for his experience 
and loyalty. But La Tr^mouille wanted the com- 
mand of this rich city for himself, and compromised 
by naming Flavy his lieutenant ; in other words, he 
drew the pay, and Flavy did the work. At Beauvais 
those who refused to recognize Charles were driven 
from the city, taking their possessions with them, 
and among them was Pierre Cauchon, Bishop and 
Vidame of Beauvais and grand almoner of France for 
King Henry. He was to have a sure revenge upon 
the Armagnac Witch. 

The Maid suspected Charles of being " content at 
that time with the grace God had done him, without 
undertaking anything further," wrote Perceval de 
Cagny, and she was impatient with the delay. It was 
all very fine to receive the keys of repentant cities, 
but there was fighting still to be done, and one day 
she said to d'Alengon : 

" My fair duke, do you and the other captains make 
ready your men. By my staff, I will see Paris nearer 
than I have yet seen it." 

As they were starting out, a messenger came to 
her from the Comte d* Armagnac, with a letter asking 
her advice as to who should be held as the true Pope, 
Martin, who had been elected by the Convocation 



ILE DE FRANCE 203 

of Constance, Clement, or Benedict, who each laid 
claim to the papal chair. Jeanne hastily replied that 
she would answer his question when she had more 
time, at Paris or elsewhere ; and her men threatened 
to drown the messenger, perhaps because he was 
delaying their departure. 

On August 23, the Maid and her company rode 
out of Compi^gne. From Dom martin, near Cr^py, 
she may have looked out toward the distant height 
of Montmartre above the great city she hoped to re- 
store to France. But she was to see Paris nearer than 
she had yet seen it 



XVIII 

PARIS 

ON August 28, Philip and Charles signed a 
truce, which covered all northern France. 
Charles could receive the submission of 
no more cities however eager to acknowledge him, 
although, oddly, he might attack Paris, which, as 
incongruously, Burgundy might help England defend 
against him. The armistice, as between France and 
Burgundy, was to last until Christmas, and at any 
time England might join it if she liked. Charles of- 
fered Compiegne to Burgundy as hostage, perhaps, 
also, as a bribe for a friendly hand with England ; 
but Compiegne refused to be lent, and was unwaver- 
ingly loyal to the king who would have repudiated 
her. Such was the triumph of diplomacy as practised 
by the chancellor and La Trdmouille : it is obvious 
that the vanity of Regnault de Chartres and the favor- 
ite's cupidity were serving Burgundy well. By a de- 
termined movement to the north, Charles could have 
gained Picardy. "In truth, the greater part of the 
people were ready to receive him as their lord," wrote 
an Anglo-Burgundian chronicler, "desiring no better 
thing than to make submission to him and throw wide 



PARIS 205 

their gates." Normandy was wavering, and even in 
its great city of Rouen plots against England were 
hatching. By a quick march to Paris, the city might 
have been taken by surprise before Bedford could 
return from Normandy ; and once established there, 
Charles could have dictated his own terms to Bur- 
gundy. But the diplomats had their will, and France 
was entangled in this lying truce, which could have 
no lasting peace for an outcome. 

Meantime the Maid and d'Alengon, Laval, La Hire, 
Poton de Saintrailles, Rais, and their brave men, 
were off for Paris. " And she feared in no manner 
the power either of the Duke of Burgundy or the 
regent," wrote Eberhard de Windecken, historian of 
the Emperor Sigismund, evidently quoting official 
communications to his royal master. " For she had 
said that our Lord God had more power than they 
and that He would aid her, and that if the Duke of 
Burgundy and the regent led more men against her, 
they would be only the better beaten. That she was 
ready to guarantee on condition that they took no- 
thing from anyone, and would do no violence to the 
poor people. There were always enough provisions 
where she was, and as long as she rode that way, pro- 
visions did not lack in the country." And Simon Bau- 
croix, a squire, and Jean Pasquerel, also, testified that 
she would permit her men to steal nothing, nor would 
she, knowingly, eat stolen food herself. " Once," said 



2q6 JEANNE D'ARC 

Simon, "a Scot told her that he had eaten of a stolen 
calf ; and she was very angry, and would have struck 
the Scot for so doing." 

When they stopped at Senlis, to pick up Vendome 
and his men, someone took a certain hackney from 
the episcopal stables for the Maid's use, the price to 
be one hundred ^cms d^ovy paid in bills drawn upon 
the treasury of the town. But when the bishop, who 
had fled to Paris, heard of the forced sale, he wrote 
demanding his horse, and the Maid answered that he 
could have it, that it was too light weight for her 
use, and the horse was sent to La Tr6mouille to de- 
liver to the bishop. But no fish ever escaped that 
net; and as the bargain was off, the accountants of 
Senlis did not honor the bills when presented, so 
my lord bishop received neither his hackney nor his 
hundred crowns, and for his lack the Maid was later 
to answer. 

On August 26, the little army reached St. Denis, 
two leagues to the north of Paris, whose famous ab- 
bey, founded three centuries before, was the burial 
place of French kings. Here was deposited the crown 
of Charlemagne, and here kings who rode to war came 
for the oriflamme, the great standard of France, which 
had not floated on a battlefield for forty years. The 
abbey was rich in precious relics of the saints, among 
them one of the two accredited heads of St. Denis. 
The other was in Paris. Either might be an object 



PARIS 207 

of devotion, Jean Gerson had said ; and both should 
be venerated for the avoiding of scandal. St. Denis 
was the patron saint of France and the war cry of 
her armies ; but since he had permitted his great ab- 
bey to become Anglo-Burgundian, he had been sup- 
planted in the affections of loyal Frenchmen by St. 
Michael, who had defended his "holy mount," Mont 
St. Michel, from assaults of the enemy both by land 
and by sea. In the great civil quarrel which had torn 
France for so many years. Burgundy had managed 
to pose as the champion of the people, and had come 
to represent the popular discontent. In Paris and its 
suburbs, especially, which had borne the full weight 
of royal exactions and the bloody feud of the princes, 
the name of Armagnac stood for robbery and strife ; 
and it was Armagnacs, rather than Burgundians, 
whom the people blamed for all the misery of the 
country when, since Agincourt, victorious English 
armies had overrun the land. And now, at the ap- 
proach of the Armagnac plunderers, the well-to-do 
citizens of St. Denis had betaken themselves and 
their goods to Paris ; but the poor people remained, 
and here, again, the Maid was godmother for two 
babies. 

The French captains had hoped that Charles, who, 
however, was absorbed at Compi^gne in his precious 
bargaining with Burgundy, would be shamed into 
following them as when they had crossed the river 



^208 JEANNE D'ARC 

at Gien. They needed the moral support of his pres- 
ence. It was well for Paris to know that the king 
was encamped at its gate, to exercise his sovereign 
right of entry; and, in any case, the city was too 
strong to be taken without the main army. D'Alen- 
9on rode back to urge his coming, and when Charles 
heard that the captains had occupied St. Denis, he 
reluctantly advanced to Senlis, and there stopped. 
"It seemed that he was advised against the will of 
the Maid and the Due d'Alen^on and those of their 
company," wrote Perceval de Cagny. Meantime, 
Jeanne and d'Alengon, who had returned to his 
command, were not idle. Each day they rode out to 
make an escarmouche before the gates of Paris, some- 
times in one place, sometimes in another ; and each 
day they reconnoitred the walls for the best point 
of attack. D'Alengon sent conciliatory letters to the 
town dignitaries, calling them by name; but they, 
suspecting him of wishing merely to stir up strife, 
told him he was only spoiling his paper to no good. 

In mid-July, as we have seen, Philip had been in 
Paris talking of the ** blood of Montereau." In a 
great assembly of the people, with Bedford at his 
side, he had recited the wrongs of Burgundy to kindle 
the embers of popular hatred against Charles and the 
Armagnacs, and everyone present swore allegiance 
to England and Burgundy. Yet, after the usual happy- 
go-lucky method of mediaeval warfare, the burghers 



PARIS 209 

had not begun to prepare for a siege until Jeanne 
and d'Alen^on appeared at St. Denis, when mighty 
efforts were put forth to save life and goods from the 
Armagnac brigands. The people were terrified with 
dark stories of vengeance : Charles had promised to 
give over the city and its people of all ages and con- 
ditions to the pleasure of his soldiery, and had sworn 
that the plough should break ground where Paris had 
stood. His army was led by " a creature in woman's 
form called the Maid. What she may be, God knows," 
ejaculates their chronicler ; and no one dared venture 
beyond the gates even to gather the grapes or get the 
vegetables from the great kitchen gardens to the 
north of the city. 

On September 7, Charles, to the great joy of the 
Maid and the army, arrived at St. Denis ; and every- 
one said, " She will put the king into Paris, if he trusts 
her." That same afternoon, Jeanne and d'Alen^on, 
Guy de Laval, and other captains, made the usual 
demonstration before the city walls, and then en- 
camped at La Chapelle, a village midway between 
Paris and St. Denis. 

On Thursday, the eighth, fell the great Festival of 
the Nativity of the Virgin, when, probably, no attack 
was expected, and everybody in Paris went to church. 
The Maid, for her part, had no clear wish to attempt 
an assault ; she said afterwards that her Voices did 
not command it and that she went at the request of 



210 JEANNE D'ARC 

the captains; and when charged with impiety for 
making an attack on a holy day, said "it is well done to 
observe the Festival of the Blessed Mary, and on my 
conscience it seems to me that it was, and ever will 
be, well to observe these festivals, from one end to 
the other." Yet, "for what concerns the attack on 
Paris," she adds, "I do not think myself in mortal 
sin." And as for her men, "the gentlemen of France 
wished to advance on Paris. In doing this, it seems 
to me they did their duty in going against their ene- 
mies." In any case, the attack was made. The cap- 
tains apparently meant to make a feint of carrying 
the city by storm, an escarmouche greater than any 
preceding, in the hope that Armagnac partisans in 
the city might open the gates to them. But it was 
not Jeanne's way to trust to luck ; the attack having 
been determined upon, she " meant to go farther," 
she said, " and break through the trenches." 

At eight o'clock in the morning, the French 
marched out of La Chapelle, and laid siege to one 
of the strongest and best guarded points of the 
city, near the Gate of St. Honors. Great quantities 
of siege material, wagons laden with faggots for the 
trenches, artillery, culverins, screens, seven hundred 
scaling ladders, were displayed before the walls. The 
Maid, with Rais and Gaucourt, led the direct assault ; 
while d'Alengon, guarding their rear from possible 
attack by a sally from another gate, stationed his 



PARIS 211 

men behind the Butte des Moulins and his guns in 
the swine market at its foot. By two o'clock in the 
afternoon, all their great show of preparation was 
completed, and the assault began. The boulevard, or 
outwork, at the Gate of St. Honor6 was soon carried 
and the men driven back to the fortifications of the 
gate itself, which was flanked by two towers like the 
Tourelles at Orleans. The walls here were guarded 
by two wide trenches, divided by a shelving ridge. 
The first ditch was dry, but the second and larger 
one was filled to the brim. Jeanne, in the front, as 
usual, standard in hand, crossed the first trench and 
gained the ridge. 

" Surrender the city to the King of France ! " she 
cried. 

" Witch ! Evil one ! " shouted the men from the 
walls. 

The disaffected people in the city, hoping to create 
a panic that might work good for the besiegers, were 
crying out that all was lost, the enemy were upon 
them; and those praying in the churches rushed 
home and barred their doors. But the garrison kept 
their heads, and there was no talk of surrender ; the 
forces holding the walls were doubled, and the fir- 
ing on both sides became so heavy that many were 
killed and wounded. If an alarm had been raised 
by connivance of the French captains, the scheme 
failed. 



212 JEANNE D'ARC 

Meantime the Maid and the men who had followed 
her to the ridge were making ineffectual efforts, under 
a heavy rain of arrows and crossbow bolts from the 
walls, to fill the flooded moat with faggots and logs. 
Jeanne had passed her standard to a man at her side, 
and was trying to sound the trench with a lance, 
when she was struck down by a bolt which pierced 
her thigh, and as she fell, the man who held her 
standard was slain beside her. She was carried to 
cover under the shelving bank ; but she had no 
thought of leaving the field, and lay there, long after 
darkness fell, urging her men to the attack. 

" Forward ! forward ! " the dauntless voice was 
calling through the evening dusk. " The place shall 
be yours." 

But the captains had had enough for one day, and 
wished to retire to their camp. One and another 
tried to persuade her to withdraw, d'Alengon sent to 
seek her ; she would not budge. But at length Gau- 
court and his men carried her out of the ditch and 
set her in the saddle, and declaring to the last that 
the city might have been taken, she rode sadly to- 
ward La Chapelle. In all this ill-planned and badly 
executed assault, if genuine assault it was meant to 
be, the girl's indomitable courage and spirit blaze 
out supreme. The attack had not been made by her 
advice, yet once undertaken, she would recognize no 
end but victory. *' If anyone in the king's command 



PARIS 213 

had been as much of a man as Jeanne," commented 
a Burgundian chronicler, " Paris would have been in 
danger." 

Early next morning, in spite of her wound, she 
went to d'Alengon, begging him to sound the trum- 
pets and return to Paris. 

" Never will I leave," she declared, " until the city 
is taken." 

D'Alengon and many of the other captains were 
of a like mind, and to confirm their determination, 
as they talked, a little cavalcade of strangers rode 
into camp. They were the Baron de Montmorenci, 
who had always been Burgundian, and fifty or sixty 
other gentlemen, who had ridden out of Paris to join 
the Maid. Now all were agreed to return to the at- 
tack, and indeed this must have been the general 
intention on the previous day, for their siege material 
had been left on the field. But at this moment, Ren6 
of Bar and Clermont rode in with orders from the 
king to join him at St. Denis. Such direct command 
there was no disregarding, and heavy-hearted, they 
obeyed ; but they meant to have their will, and see 
Paris again. Perhaps with the idea of making a 
double attack, d'Alengon had bridged the Seine 
upstream from the city, and early Saturday morn- 
ing, he, with the Maid and a few picked men, se- 
cretly set out for Paris; but the councillors had 
taken the precaution of destroying his bridge in the 



214 JEANNE D'ARC 

night, and there was nothing for it but to remain 
with the king. 

It had seemed apparent, again, that someone was 
being paid that Paris might be held immune, and 
one suspects the wily hand of La Tr^mouille playing 
with his master's indolence and irresolution. For 
the next three days, the party of peace at any price 
indulged their pleasure of lengthy debate, although 
no doubt the decision had already been made to re- 
turn to the Loire ; and Charles sent a letter to Reims, 
with the assurance that peace was to follow his truce 
with Burgundy. Meantime, he wrote, he would not 
eat up the country with his present army, but would 
return to the Loire there to gather a larger force on 
the chance that his hope of peace might not be real- 
ized. Probably his letter did not go far toward molli- 
fying the burghers of Reims, who might expect a 
lively harvest of vengeance for their coronation fes- 
tivity; and a clear reading of the letter told them 
that they were free to use their own wit to escape 
the grinding of the millstones of England and Bur- 
gundy. The king meant to abandon the country, and 
march his army back to the Loire ; however he might 
cloak his intention with fine phrases, that fact was 
plain to all. He made Clermont lieutenant-governor 
of the province, with many aides, Vendome, Bourbon, 
Coulent, Boussac among them. Ambroise de Lor6 
was made governor of Lagny, whose prior, with a 



PARIS 215 

deputation of citizens, had come to St. Denis begging 
the king to take their town under his protection. 
Regnault de Chartres remained at Senlis. 

On the afternoon of September 13, Charles set out 
for the goal of his desire ; he needed no urging now 
to take the road, and on September 21, he and La 
Tr^mouille had the pleasure of dining at Gien, with 
the appetite, let us hope, of men who had accom- 
plished their will in the face of seemingly insuperable 
obstacle ; for they had turned back the stream of 
destiny, now in midcourse and making straight for 
the triumph of French arms, to the stagnant marsh 
whence it had come. 

Before she left St. Denis, Jeanne went to the great 
abbey and there, in the burial place of her kings, 
offered up the complete suit of her white armor on 
the altar of the Virgin. "I offered them there," she 
said, "because St. Denis is the war cry of France ;" 
and she told her enemies that she did this as a votive 
offering, as was the custom of soldiers when wounded. 
Yet she had felt no call to offer up sword, or lance, 
or body steel after her wound at Orleans ; it was as if, 
with a deep conviction that her day of triumph was 
done, she made sacrifice of the victorious arms which 
Orleans and Jargeau, Patay and Reims had known. 

"And thus," wrote Perceval de Cagny, " was broken 
the will of the Maid and the army of the king." No 
thanks to Charles that the spirit of France was not 



2i6 JEANNE D'ARC 

snuffed out forever. But the impetus the Maid had 
given was never lost : not one of the towns taken by 
her returned to the enemy ; and the gray mist of dis- 
appointment now shutting her in only veiled the road 
of victory which she had beaten out for France. 



XIX 

THE TRUCE 

THE king's garrison at St. Denis soon fell 
back upon Senlis. English troops occupied 
the town, and seized the Maid's armor, 
although thereby they committed " pure and mani- 
fest sacrilege." It was said they sent it to the King 
of England, but nothing is certainly known. 

At Gien, affairs were allowed to drift as they 
would. So far from gathering a fresh army, the 
troops disbanded, and no effort was made to raise a 
new war fund. The councillors were content with 
their truce; Charles was living the life that best 
pleased him ; and the leaders returned to their sev- 
eral commands, d' Alengon going to his wife at Beau- 
mont, while d'Albret, La Tremouille's brother-in-law, 
was made lieutenant-general in his place. The Maid, 
sad at heart, remained with the king ; and especially, 
said Cagny, " did she grieve for the departure of the 
Due d'Alen^on, whom she greatly loved, and for 
whom she would do what she would have done for 
no other." He, however, was not long content at 
Beaumont, and planned an expedition into Normandy, 
by way of Brittany and Maine. He begged the king 



2i8 JEANNE D'ARC 

to allow Jeanne to go with him. " For her sake," he 
said, "many will join my company, who would not stir 
unless she goes." But La Trtoouille and Gaucourt 
and Regnault de Chartres, " who then governed the 
body of the king and the conduct of his war," had no 
notion of permitting these two hot heads to go into 
the enemy's country, winning glory for themselves,, 
while, most likely, they upset the kettle of fish which 
should turn out a fine dish for diplomats. 

At this time, Philip had completely duped them 
with his bright lure of peace ; even some of the war 
party believed that might come about without more 
fighting, and Dunois, with some of the other cap- 
tains, had signed the truce of Compiegne. It was 
clear to all that England could not stand alone ; but 
Charles had neither gold nor lands sufficient to pay 
the ruinous price of Burgundy, who, accordingly, saw 
more profit in a loose alliance with England. Philip 
was already the richest prince in Christendom ; and 
if he could continue that hazardous game of see-saw, 
— Charles up, Bedford down, England winning by 
France's measure of loss, — he would be one of the 
most powerful. The councillors of the king, with the 
possible exception of La Trdmouille, who was un- 
doubtedly in Philip*s pay, were willing enough that 
France should be saved, but in their own way and at 
their own time. They probably felt no personal ani- 
mosity toward the Maid, unless Regnault de Chartres 



THE TRUCE 219 

hated her for making him disgorge that " rich crown " 
at Reims ; but she had reached the danger limit of 
her glory, and although they might allow her to serve 
their convenience now and again in some small way, 
she herself probably realized that their opposition to 
her hope for the speedy liberation of the country was 
invincible. She wished always to " go into France,** 
the He de France, and strike at the heart of Eng- 
land's power ; and her instinct was right. There was 
a growing discontent, a growing conviction that France 
should be governed by Frenchmen ; and stories were 
told of the good old times of Charles V and Du 
Guesclin, when France could call her soul her own 
and men had bread to eat. A determined advance 
on Paris would have brought wavering cities over to 
the king, while the capital, with supplies cut off, could 
not have stood alone. 

The Maid had realized those stupendous visions of 
her childhood : she had come to the dauphin by means 
of Robert de Baudricourt, she had raised the siege of 
Orleans, and, supremely, she had led the king to his 
consecration ; but she believed herself still under a 
** sacred charge " to drive the English from the king- 
dom, and perhaps, beyond, there had lain a shining 
hope of reconciling the hostile armies in a crusade to 
the Holy Sepulchre. And in the dark present her 
Voices, although they gave her no definite counsel, 
never ceased to hearten her for the saving of France. 



220 JEANNE D'ARC 

Her own shrewd commonsense told her that Paris 
should be the objective of attack; yet, since she 
could not go to the north, she was willing to work 
where she might. But the king was taking his ease 
after those three adventurous months, and Jeanne, 
however unwilling, must follow in his train. It was 
easier to cure La Hire of blasphemy than the court 
of its idle foolishness. 

The queen came up from Bourges in late Septem- 
ber to join Charles at Selles, and Jeanne rode out to 
meet and salute her on the highway. In the queen's 
retinue was one Margaret La Touroulde, wife of a 
treasury official, and when the court returned to 
Bourges, d'Albret lodged Jeanne at her house, al- 
though her husband had said she was to go to the 
house of a certain Jean Duchesne. The Maid spent 
three quiet weeks at Bourges, hearing mass, meeting 
the people, talking with Margaret ; and if her heart 
was heavy with disappointment, the simple sweetness 
of her nature was in no way corrupted. " She com- 
ported herself," said Madame La Touroulde, " as a 
worthy and Catholic woman. And to my mind she 
was quite innocent, unless it be in warfare. She rode 
a horse and handled a lance like the best of knights, 
and soldiers marvelled at her." She slept with her 
hostess, as was the custom of the day ; a man slept 
with his host ; children, being admonished to keep 
to their own place, lie quietly, and sleep with their 



THE TRUCE 221 

mouths shut, were tucked in anywhere. Jeanne often 
asked Margaret to go to matins with her ; and they 
went, also, to the public vapor or hot air baths in the 
lower part of the town near the river. 

The two women talked of the wars. 

" If you are not afraid," Margaret said, " it is be- 
cause you know you will not be killed." And Jeanne 
answered that she was no safer than any other soldier. 

Jeanne told of her visit to the Duke of Lorraine, 
and of the rout of the Poitiers clergy. 

"There are books of our Lord's," she had told 
them, "which are greater than yours." 

The women of Bourges came to visit her, and 
brought their rosaries for her to bless. 

"Touch them yourselves," Jeanne laughingly told 
them. "Your touch will do them as much good as 
mine." 

Margaret noted that she hated dicing ; that she 
was liberal in almsgiving, and gladly succored the 
poor and needy, saying simply : " I have been sent 
for their consolation." 

Meantime the king was holding his restless course 
from town to town, in Touraine, Poitou, Berri, and 
soon the councillors granted the Maid's insistent de- 
mand that she be set to work. She had swept the 
king up to Reims and even as far as Paris against 
their will ; but when their pleasure ground was threat- 
ened, they h^^ been glad enough for her to try her 



222 JEANNE D'ARC 

hand at Orleans ; and now, although her prestige 
had been dimmed in that futile summer campaign 
capped by the rebuff at Paris, they decided to use 
her again in clearing out some troublesome neighbors 
on the upper Loire, over against Bourges. 

Here, on the confines of Burgundian territory, 
were several fortified towns held by typical soldiers 
of fortune, nominally Anglo-Burgundian. The strong 
town of La Charitdi had been taken ten years before 
by the ablest of these men, Perrinet Gressart, who 
had begun life as a mason; but war was the best 
paying trade in those days, and when Philip of Bur'- 
gundy would have laid any restraint upon him, he 
threatened to sell out to the enemy, and made a fine 
living out of this rich district of the upper Loire. 
Early in his career, he had dared seize La Tr^mouill6 
as he was proceeding to the Burgundian court for 
some profitable negotiation; and the rich favorite 
was allowed to leave La Charitd only at the price of a 
month's captivity and a ransom of fourteen thousand 
^cus d'or. He, no doubt, had bided his time to open 
the book of this old account with Gressart. The little 
town of St. Pierre le Moustier, which stood on a bluff 
overlooking the river meadows some thirty-five miles 
upstream from La Charit6, was held by a Spanish 
free lance, who had married a niece of Gressart ; and 
its garrison descended from their stronghold to rob 
and pillage far and wide in Berri and Bourbonnais. ' 



THE TRUCE 223 

By the end of October, a sufficient force was 
gathered at Bourges under the command of d'Albret 
and the Maid, and it was decided to smoke out the 
nest at St. Pierre le Moustier before marching on 
Gressart's headquarters at La Charity. After the 
town had been pounded with artillery for several 
days, an assault was ordered, and the men rushed to 
the walls, but were thrown back. D'Aulon, who had 
been wounded in the heel, was watching the assault, 
and as the storming party was repulsed, he saw the 
Maid left almost alone near the walls. Throwing 
down his crutches and leaping into the saddle, he 
galloped up to her, crying out : 

" What are you doing here alone ^ Why don't you 
retreat with the others ? " 

** I am not alone," she replied, as she raised the 
visor of her helmet. " Fifty thousand of my people 
are about me. Nor will I go until the town is mine." 

Jean d'Aulon looked about for her multitude. 

" But whatever she might say," reported the worthy 
squire, " she had with her not more than four or five 
men. This I know for certain, as do others who saw 
her." 

Again he besought her to withdraw ; but she only 
bade him look after screens and faggots for the 
trenches. 

" To the faggots and hurdles, everyone," her voice 
ranor out over the retreat. "Brid^^re the moat." 



■t5 """ '-"">'* *'**>' iV^WAWWVV. ^**v*j3> 



224 JEANNE D'ARC 

Back came her men to the assault, and the town 
was taken with but little resistance. 

** That and all her deeds seem to me more divine 
and miraculous than otherwise," comments d' Aulon. 
**Was it possible for so young a maid to do such 
things without the will and guidance of our Lord ? " 
"And thus he deposes," goes the record, "without 
love, favor, hate or suborning, but for the truth, and 
as he knew it to be in the Maid." 

The soldiers would have pillaged even the churches 
of their sacred vessels and the treasure hidden there ; 
but Jeanne stoutly forbade them, and nothing was 
stolen. 

Then the Maid and d' Albret proceeded to Moulins, 
an important town farther up the river in Bourbonnais, 
whence they sent letters to the loyal cities asking for 
money and supplies ; as usual the king and his coun- 
cil had permitted work to be done for which they 
had no intention of paying the bills. 

At this time, St. Colette, head of the Franciscan 
Order of the Clarisses, was at Moulins ; and Jeanne 
must have heard of her in the old times at Domremy, 
for she had travelled up and down the country from 
one convent to another, now in Champagne, now in 
Picardy or Touraine, righting abuses, enforcing dis- 
cipline, and many fine miracles were attributed to 
her. One morning, it was said, the bells of her con- 
vent rang out three hours ahead of time ; and fearing 



THE TRUCE 225 

the townsmen might think she was signalling the 
enemy, she at once willed all the clocks and the sun 
itself to keep time with her bells, and Corbie that 
day beat the world by three hours. The quaint flowers 
of legend are determined by the roots that nourish 
them, and no doubt St. Colette was a masterful lady. 
No such miracles were told of Jeanne. She came from 
God for the saving of France and the relief of the 
poor ; her presence was a blessing ; she had divine 
power to make men good and to destroy the enemies 
of the kingdom : all this men believed of her, and 
took heart for the daily adventure of living. 

Several times this autumn Jeanne had met a mystic 
of another stripe than good St. Colette, one Catherine 
de la Rochelle, who was much more to the mind of 
the royal council than the Maid. Her familiar spirit 
was a white lady draped in cloth-of-gold, who coun- 
selled Catherine to get from the king heralds and 
trumpets to bid the people bring out their gold and 
silver and concealed treasure ; if they held anything 
back, she would know and discover it. She also 
wished to visit the Duke of Burgundy to make peace. 

Jeanne made short shrift of this visionary. 

" I will pay your men-at-arms with the treasure I 
get," Catherine told her. 

" You might better return to your husband, look 
after your home, and bring up your children," re- 
turned the Maid. 



226 JEANNE ^D'ARC 

Jeanne asked her if the vision of the white lady 
came to her every night, and when Catherine an- 
swered that it did, proposed to share her bed that 
she, too, might see the lady in cloth-of-gold. 

Jeanne watched till midnight; then sleep got the 
better of her curiosity. 

" Did the white lady come ? " she asked in the 
morning. 

" Yes, Jeanne, while you slept, and I could not 
rouse you." 

" Will she come tonight ? " 

"Yes." 

Then Jeanne prepared for her vigil by sleeping 
during the day ; but the hours passed, and no white 
lady appeared. 

" Will she never come ? " asked Jeanne from time 
to time, her healthy young body crying out for 
sleep. 

" Yes, soon, in a moment," said Catherine. 

Jeanne watched faithfully, but saw nothing. Then 
she consulted St. Catherine and St. Margaret, to 
make sure she did Madame Catherine no wrong; and 
they told her this mission was no more than folly. 
Meantime Brother Richard had attached himself to 
the new prodigy, and wished to set her to work; but 
Jeanne nipped his plan in the bud by telling the 
king that the woman's claim was foolish ; whereupon 
Catherine and the friar were " ill content." 



THE TRUCE 227 

When Jeanne wished to be off for La Charity, Cath- 
erine advised against it. 

"It is too cold," she said. "I shall not go"; and 
added that she meant to go to the Duke of Burgundy 
to make peace, — that threadbare device of the royal 
council. 

" It seems to me that peace will be found only at 
the point of the lance," answered the Maid, who 
knew well the worth of that lying truce. 

The Maid's mission had roused emulation in other 
foolish folk, and one La Pierronne from Brittany 
was affirming that God often appeared to her in a 
white robe with a crimson huque. A year later she 
and Catherine were brought before a tribunal in 
Paris, when La Pierronne declared that ** lady Jeanne, 
who fought with the Armagnacs was good, and that 
what she had done was well done and according to 
God ; " while Catherine, with her trick of pleasing 
the presiding power, accused the Maid of being a 
ward of the devil. Catherine was let go ; La Pier- 
ronne, protesting the truth of her visions, was burned 
at the stake. 

About the middle of November, the army, with 
what men and supplies d'Albret and the Maid had 
been able to muster, settled down before La Cha- 
rite. Boussac had joined them with his company, 
and Orleans had responded to their appeal by send- 
ing money, gunners, artillery, and warm clothing; 



228 JEANNE D'ARC 

but the army was ill equipped for this winter siege. 
Riom had promised money which it never sent ; and 
when they made an urgent appeal to the citizens of 
Bourges : help they must have, or the siege must be 
abandoned, "which would be a very great misfor- 
tune to their city and all the country of Berri," 
Bourges voted thirteen hundred ^cus d'or for the 
troops, which, also, was never received. The be- 
siegers vigorously pummelled the town with what 
artillery they had ; but wily Perrinet Gressart and 
his stronghold were not to be taken by hungry, dis- 
contented men, whose leaders appealed in vain for 
necessary support ; and " because the king made no 
arrangements to send provisions or money for her 
men, the Maid, in great displeasure, raised the siege 
and departed." So writes Perceval de Cagny. Jeanne 
said her Voices had never counselled the siege ; she 
had always wanted to go into France, but the cap- 
tains said it was better to go first to La Charite. 
A month had been wasted in artillery play, an as- 
sault had resulted only in loss of men, — Jean the 
Lorrainer, who had come down from Orleans with 
his famous culverin, was wounded in good earnest 
this time ; and the troops, hungry, cold, disheartened, 
unpaid, left some of their artillery for Gressart to 
capture, and disbanded. 

This was the sorry end of Jeanne's fighting in 
1429. Yet what extraordinary deeds had she not ac- 



THE TRUCE 229 

complished, in spite of unbelief and opposition, since 
she had set out for Vaucouleurs hardly a year before? 
"She did things incredible to those who had not 
seen them, and it may be ventured would have done 
them again if the king and his council had been well 
conducted and maintained toward her," was the judg- 
ment of Perceval de Cagny. 

The Maid joined Charles at his beautiful chdteau 
at M^hun-sur-Y^vre, where many years after he was 
to starve to death for fear of being poisoned by his 
son, Louis XI ; and on the twenty-ninth of Decem- 
ber he decorated her with an empty honor which she 
cared for not at all. In the presence of La Tr^- 
mouille, Le Ma^on, and other courtiers, a patent of 
nobility, sealed with a great seal of green wax upon 
ribbons of red and green, the Orleans colors, was 
conferred upon "our dear and beloved Jeanne d'Ay 
(so the Lorraine accent softened d'Arc) in recogni- 
tion not only of her merit but of the divine grace, 
... in consideration of the praiseworthy and useful 
services she has rendered to the realm and which 
she may still render, . . . and to the end that the 
divine glory and the memory of such favors may en- 
dure and increase to all time." She and all her fam- 
ily, father, mother, brothers, and their descendants in 
male and female line to the farthest generation, were 
ennobled. Charles was a "well-languaged prince;" 
yet for his fair words, Jeanne would have chosen a 



230 JEANNE D'ARC 

stout company of men to lead into France. No coat- 
of-arms is mentioned in the patent; but the king 
granted to her brothers arms of a shield azure with 
a sword supporting a crown and golden fleur-de-lis 
on either side. The Maid used neither the grant of 
nobility nor the blazon, nor did she ask the device 
for her brothers. She was Jeanne, or Jeanne the 
Maid ; but the family ever after bore the name of du 
Lys. Her two brothers always fought faithfully by 
her side, and they, at least, were not averse to receiv- 
ing the benefits earned by her glory. In later years, 
Jean had Robert de Baudricourt's berth at Vaucou- 
leurs ; and Pierre du Lys was given the He aux Boeuf s 
at Orleans, where he lived with his wife, supported 
by the duke and his town, which also granted a pen- 
sion to Isabeau, who lived there for fifteen years. At 
some time, just when is not certain, Jeanne took a 
house at Orleans next a shop in the Rue des Petits- 
Souliers, where the English cannonball had surprised 
a dinner party, whose escape was held as "a miracle 
done by our Lord at the request of Monseigneur St. 
Aignan, patron of Orleans." Perhaps the Maid hoped 
to live among her "good people" when fighting days 
were done, or, it may be, she took the house for the 
convenience of her family. 

Little is known of Jeanne during this winter of 
1430. Now when fighting should have been under 
way, the idle frivolity of the court must have fretted 



THE TRUCE 231 

her beyond measure. She had plumbed the depth of 
such grace as it had to give ; and one can picture her 
scorn of the new-fangled game of playing-cards, of 
rebeck-twanging and love-making, of madrigals, and 
mincing dance. In spite of her gayety and her wo- 
man's love of beautiful belongings, her austere young 
spirit never bent to foolishness, and the courtiers 
must have found her an accusing presence bidding 
them remember that France, out there beyond the 
circle of their pleasure, waited to be saved. 

The truce with Burgundy was prorogued until the 
middle of March and then until Easter, which fell a 
month later ; but no preparation was made for the 
renewal of war in case peace should fail, although 
the captains who had been left in the north were 
making themselves troublesome in the country about 
Paris, and La Hire had swept up to within twenty 
miles of Rouen and captured the town of Louviers. 
What money there was went to fill the coffers of La 
Tremouille. 

On January 19, Jeanne was at Orleans, and the 
burghers made a fine feast for her and her host of 
Poitiers, Jean Rabateau, and two other gentlemen, at 
an expense of something over six livres which they 
laid out on six capons, nine partridges, thirteen hares 
and a pheasant. They also presented their guests 
with fifty-two pints of wine, and to a brother of the 
Maid they gave, more practically, a doublet. At 



232 JEANNE D'ARC 

about this time, also, Jeanne made her demand on 
Tours for one hundred ^cus d'or to be given Hamish 
Power for his daughter's dowry ; for in all these ad- 
venturous or disheartening months she had not lost 
sight of her little friend Hdliote, whose father had 
painted her great white standard. The burghers of 
Tours, assembled in solemn conclave, opined that 
town funds could not be used for such purpose ; yet, 
"for love and honor of the said Maid," certain digni- 
taries should attend the marriage ceremony, and 
wheat bread and four measures of wine be given 
for the feast. 

By the middle of March, the Maid had returned to 
the court, which was visiting La Tr^mouille at Sully. 
Here she received letters from Reims, where a plot 
to betray the town to England had been traced to a 
canon of the cathedral and the fugitive Pierre Cau- 
chon, Count-Bishop of Beauvais. Cauchon had been 
a canon of Reims, and Beauvais was in the jurisdic- 
tion of its archbishop ; but, preeminently, he was the 
useful servant of the strongly Anglo-Burgundian 
University of Paris. 

" Know that if I can help it, you shall not be as- 
sailed," wrote Jeanne to the fearful burghers of 
Reims. " If I do not meet the English before they 
come to you, close your gates, for I will be with you 
shortly ; and I will make them buckle on their spurs 
in such a hurry that they will not be able to use 



THE TRUCE 233 

them. ... I could tell you other news, . . . but I 
fear the letter may be taken on the road." 

Her news may have been that Charles was pro- 
mising to take the field in person, or that a great 
anti-English conspiracy was on foot in Paris, where 
suffering had bred active discontent. The plot was 
discovered about March 21, and eight ringleaders ex- 
ecuted. But the activity of the French captains in 
the towns about Paris was choking the life out of the 
capital ; and while provisions went up by leaps and 
bounds, not a man dared venture beyond the walls 
for fresh supplies, for the He de France was ravaged 
equally by French and Burgundians. 

Bedford was in Normandy, and Philip was engaged 
in celebrating his third marriage, whereby he had of- 
fended Bedford whose sister, Philip's second wife, 
was but a few months dead. The Burgundian court 
passed the winter jousting and feasting at Bruges, 
where seventeen nations had their established trades. 
For eight days and nights, wine had flowed in 
streams, a stone lion spouted Rhenish, a stag gave 
out Beaume, a unicorn rosewater and Malvoisie. The 
town was aglitter with the wealth of the world, the 
streets spread with soft Flemish carpets, joust and 
merrymaking were graced with the beauty of Flemish 
women, of whom Jane of Navarre had said : " I see 
none here but queens." To honor his nuptials, Philip 
had founded the great Order of the Golden Fleece, 



234 JEANNE D'ARC 

which, men whispered, took its name from the fair 
locks of Madame d'Or, and is still in the gift of the 
royal houses of Austria and Spain. 

Reims wrote again to the Maid, begging her to 
deny stories of disloyalty to the king. ** The king 
knows well the contrary," she answered, ** and that 
you have much to suffer from these traitorous Bur- 
gundians. But, please God, you shall be delivered 
shortly, that is to say, the very soonest that may be. 
. . . Guard well your good city for the king. You 
shall soon hear my good news more plainly. . . . 
All Brittany is French, and the duke will send the 
king three thousand men paid for two months." But, 
again, Brittany did not send his men. 

On March 23, a letter signed with Jeanne's name 
was sent to the Hussites, against whom Cardinal 
Beaufort had planned his crusade. It was probably 
the work of Jean Pasquerel, and shows neither the 
Maid's phraseology nor spirit. Threats of punish- 
ment for their heresy are made : " perhaps I will leave 
the English and turn against you," which would have 
been impossible to Jeanne, both the word and the 
deed. 

Certainly Bedford and Burgundy had never con- 
templated peace ; on the contrary, there was a care- 
fully worked-out plan for the spring campaign. An 
army, victualled in Normandy and Picardy, should 
take the towns near Paris lost that summer, and the 



THE TRUCE 235 

city be relieved and well garrisoned ; La Charit6 and 
Burgundian towns of the upper Loire should be used 
as a base for an expedition northward upon Orleans ; 
to the west, forces should be thrown into frontier 
towns to crowd the enemy on that side ; to the north, 
Laon and Soissons must be taken to clear the road 
to Reims, while that town, and Beauvais, Sens, and 
Melun were considered too strong for direct attack. 
The reduction of Compi^gne, which he could neither 
borrow nor buy, Philip reserved for himself ; and of 
all this elaborate programme, only the siege of Com- 
piegne was carried out. Preparations were hastened 
for bringing over from England little Henry VI for 
his crowning at Reims ; and on April 23, in fact, he 
disembarked at Calais. But Philip, as did Jeanne, 
believed that Paris, "the heart of the mystic body 
of the kingdom," should be secure before other war 
was made. He feared that the siege of Reims might 
be a long affair. The price of his cooperation with 
England was the province of Champagne and twelve 
thousand crowns to boot, which Bedford was forced 
to pay him. 

In all this time Charles and his councillors were 
exhibiting their serene reliance upon the faith of 
Burgundy by doing nothing for their own salvation. 
" To the Kings of France marvellous signs and mir- 
acles are shown by God, as in the Sainte Ampoule 
and the oriflamme, the Fleurs de Lys and the Maid," 



236 JEANNE D'ARC 

recites th^Jardins des Nobles ; but Charles was ever 
inappreciative of the sum of his blessings. And the 
Maid, "who was ill content," observed Perceval de 
Cagny, " with the methods of the king and his council 
for the recovery of the realm," determined that she, 
at least, would be near Paris when the truce should 
end. 



XX 

compi£gne 

LATE in March or in early April, the Maid 
left Sully with her little military household. 
Cagny says that she went secretly, without 
taking leave of the king ; but we know that she had 
a war chest of some twelve thousand crowns, which 
the king had given her, "no great sum for waging 
war," she commented ; and it may be that the court, 
estimating that a low price to be rid of such a thorn 
in the foot of idle pleasure as she must have been 
throughout the winter, gladly packed off her and 
her men for the uncertain fortunes of the war. She 
set out for Lagny, which " was making good war on 
the English in Paris and elsewhere.'* There is no 
record of her road, except for a tradition that she 
passed through the Forest of Fontainebleau ; but as 
she took some two weeks in the going, it is more 
probable that she followed the longer route by way 
of the friendly towns of Montargis, Sens, Bray, which 
the army had taken from Paris. 

Montargis was a town after her own heart, so loyal 
that its castle, " Le Berceau des Enfans de France '* 
it was called, was used as a royal nursery ; its citizens 



238 JEANNE D'ARC 

had the right to wear a crowned M embroidered on 
their coats ; and the town itself, relieved of all taxes 
save the gabelle upon salt, was called Montargis-le- 
Franc, Montargis the Free. In the castle, a great 
fresco told the story of the famous Dog of Montargis. 
At Paris, in the presence of Charles VI, he had iden- 
tified his master's murderer in the midst of a crowd, 
had led the way to a spot in the Forest of Bondy 
where the corpse was buried, and had fought the 
murderer until he confessed. 

' On her way northward, Jeanne must have heard of 
the disaffection of Melun, which England had cap- 
tured in 1420 after a siege of four months, and had 
locked up Barbazon, its brave captain, at Louvier, 
where he had been recently liberated by La Hire. In 
the autumn of 1429, Bedford had ceded the town to 
Burgundy; but about April 21, the burghers rose, 
turned out captain and garrison, and declared their 
allegiance to France. Just what part Jeanne played 
here we are not told ; but she was at Melun during 
Easter week, and she was never an onlooker when 
work was doing. She must have taken heart from this 
opening of her campaign in France ; and yet it was now 
that her Voices warned her of the approaching term 
of her precious "year and little more." One day, as 
she stood on the ramparts of Melun, came the shock 
of that clear revelation. 

" Thou wilt be taken before the Feast of St. John," 



COMPIEGNE 239 

she was told, *'and so it must be. Do not be con- 
founded, but accept it with resignation. God will aid 
thee." 

Many times and nearly every day, St. Catherine 
and St. Margaret repeated their message, always 
adding the unfailing assurance, *' God will aid thee ;" 
and the Maid kept their warning to herself, only 
trusting less to her own plans, and consulting more 
often with the captains. All undismayed, she had no 
thought of turning from her "sacred charge," but 
steadfast to the end, she meant to fight where she 
could and while she could in obedience to the Will 
that had always governed her. At rare moments in 
the past, when her spirit was dulled by discourage- 
ment wrought by thwarting politicians and the in- 
credible weakness of her king, Jeanne had listened 
to men's counsel as another girl might, and had made 
mistakes as before Paris ; but after that day on the 
ramparts of Melun, she consulted her men because 
she knew that her day was nearly done and that 
soon they must stand alone ; moreover, St. Catherine 
and St. Margaret were directing her not at all, only 
heartening her to bear her inevitable doom. Yet 
although she submitted unquestioningly to the fate 
decreed, her free spirit sickened at the thought of cap- 
tivity, and she prayed that when she should be taken, 
she might die without distress of long imprison- 
ment. 



240 JEANNE D'ARC 

"Be resigned to all," th« answer came. " So it must 

be." 

"Had I known the hour," she said afterwards, 
with her direct simplicity, which could accept the in- 
evitable but courted no unnecessary martyrdom, "I 
would not have gone out that day. I had sought many 
times to learn the time of my capture from my Voices, 
but they told me not." 

Now with capture certain, she kept serenely on her 
way, and Melun secure for France, set out for Lagny, 
which had made its submission when Charles was at 
St. Denis. Foucault, a lieutenant of Ambroise de 
Lor6, commanded the town ; and Baretta, a Lombard 
soldier of fortune, with his company of thirty-two men- 
at-arms, forty-three crossbowmen, and twenty archers, 
was there, and also Kennedy, a Scotch captain. News 
had come to Lagny that a band of three or four hun- 
dred Anglo-Burgundians, commanded by one Fran- 
quet d* Arras, who had once served under Perrinet 
Gressart, was burning and pillaging a path across the 
He de France ; and the forces at Lagny, with some 
neighboring garrisons, marched out to intercept them. 
They came up with the freebooters when they were 
laden with the spoils of a recently sacked village and 
church, and were laying siege to a castle. Franquet 
wheeled and formed his men in good order, archers 
in front with their palisade of pikes, and the first 
attack of the loyalists was repulsed; but he was 



COMPIKGNE 241 

hemmed in between the hostile castle in the rear 
and an active enemy which returned again and again 
to the attack ; and after a bloody fight, where many 
were killed and wounded on both sides, he and the 
men who remained to him surrendered. By the com- 
mon usage of the time, he should have been held 
for ransom, but the Maid wished to exchange him 
for one of the conspirators who had been imprisoned 
after the discovery of the Armagnac plot in Paris. 
This man, innkeeper at the Bear, had, however, died 
in his prison, and the French claimed Franquet to be 
tried as a murderer, thief and traitor, by the civil 
law. Jeanne gave up her right to him, saying to the 
Bailly of Sen lis, who sat as judge in the case : 

" As my man is dead, do with the other what you 
should do, for justice." 

The trial lasted fifteen days, and Franquet, having 
confessed himself guilty of the charges, was put to 
death. Just why the man was not held for ransom is 
not known. It would have been hard to pick from 
the soldiers of fortune on either side one who had 
not been guilty of murder and theft, and they all 
changed sides often enough to merit the name of 
traitor ; but for some reason, the people of Lagny had 
a spasm of virtue or revenge, and Franquet d' Arras 
paid the just penalty of his crimes. The Maid's ene- 
mies charged her with being guilty of his death, and 
an Englishman wrote that she cut off his head with 



242 JEANNE D'ARC 

her own hand because he would not kneel to her. 
But she herself said simply, as one who would not 
arrogate the judging of any man : 

" I consented that he should die if he merited it." 

Up to this time, she had used the sword of St. 
Catherine of Fierbois, but now she took one of the 
Burgundian swords, " a good sword to give good buf- 
fets and good blows," she said carelessly. What be- 
came of the sword of Fierbois, she never told. Per- 
haps she hung it as a votive offering in the old church 
of St. Pierre at Lagny, lest, when she should be cap- 
tured, it fall into English hands as had her armor. 

While she was at Lagny, a child who was believed 
to have died at birth, unbaptized, had been taken to 
the church and laid at the feet of the Virgin, and 
young girls of the town gathered about the inanimate 
little form to pray that life might be restored to it. 
The Maid was asked to come and pray with them. 
" At last," says Jeanne, " it seemed to live and gasped 
three times, and then it was baptized and died at 
once and was buried in holy ground. The child had 
showed no signs of life for three days, it was said, 
and was as black as my coat ; but when he gasped, 
his color began to come back." And this story, also, 
became ammunition for her enemies. 

" At her coming," wrote Cagny, ** there was a great 
cry and commotion at Paris and other places;" while 
other and more friendly folk were not unmindful of 



COMPIEGNE 243 

her. The record is preserved of a certain priest of 
Angers, who, on April 18, had such a bad headache 
that he thought ** rather to die of such pain than ever 
to get well." At four in the morning, however, he 
bethought him of blessed St. Catherine, to whom it 
was his custom to appeal when in trouble; nor did 
she now forsake him, for the pain soon vanished; 
and in a few days, when he made grateful pilgrimage 
to her shrine at Fierbois, he said a mass for the king 
and for the Maid, "honored of God," and for the 
prosperity and peace of the kingdom. 

On April 22, Charles was still deluding himself 
with the ignis fatuus of peace, although the next day 
Henry and a large army were to land at Calais. Ten 
months before, the Maid had informed Reims that 
she was " ill content with these truces ; " but it was 
not until May that Charles came to his senses, and 
announced the surprising discovery that Burgundy 
"has never had, and now has not, any intention of 
coming to terms of peace, but always has favored 
and does favor our enemies." The Maid and Reims 
and Compi^gne had seen the truth plainly enough, 
— Reims which feared treachery within her walls 
and without, and Compi^gne which had flatly refused 
to be hostage for such foolish truce. And that winter 
Burgundy had tried to buy Compiegne from her cap- 
tain, Guillaume de Flavy, at the price of a thousand 
crowns and the hand of a rich heiress ; but for re- 



244^ JEANNE D'ARC 

sponse Flavy had said simply that the city was not 
his, but the king's. By their purblind vanity, and 
also, no doubt, by reason of Burgundian gold in the 
pockets of La Tr^mouille, the royal council wasted 
five good years. By another such " strooke " at Paris 
as had been dealt at Orleans, they could have dic- 
tated their own terms to Philip, and the Treaty of 
Arras would have been signed in 1430 instead of 

1435. 
From Lagny, Jeanne rode on to Senlis, and with 

her was a company of about one thousand horse, 
among them Baretta and his men, whom she proba- 
bly paid from the war chest given her by the king. 
The people of Senlis, burgh erwise, pleaded poverty 
for not receiving the troops, but allowed thirty or 
forty of the chiefs to enter their gates ; and on May 
13, the Maid and her little army went on to Com- 
piegne, where she was lodged in a house in the Rue 
de rfitoile. Next day the burghers, who had done no 
more for the chancellor and Vendome, presented her 
with four measures of wine. 

Compi^gne was the objective of Philip's spring 
campaign. That once in his hands, all the He de 
France would be open to him, but that he must have 
to keep open his line of communication with Picardy 
and Flanders ; and toward the end of the truce, he 
had been concentrating his forces at Montdidier, thirty 
miles to the northwest. Compiegne had a position 



COMPlfeGNE 245 

not unlike that of Orleans, except that it was on the 
south instead of the north side of a river. Behind it, 
to the south, was the great forest of Compi^gne, at 
its feet was the river Oise, and its bridge was pro- 
tected by a fortification corresponding to the Tou- 
relles and an outpost or boulevard. Beyond the river, 
to the north, marshy meadows stretched to the low 
hills of Picardy; and from the bridgehead a cause- 
way crossed the meadows to the village of Margny, 
nestling under the bluffs of the hills. Compi^gne 
was near the confluence of the Oise, the Aisne, and 
the Aronde rivers. On the north bank of the Oise, 
to the northeast of Compi^gne, the town of Pont 
rfiveque and its bridge were held by a strong Eng- 
lish garrison ; on the north bank of the Aisne, di- 
rectly east of the city, Choisy and its bridge were 
held by the French, and twenty miles farther up- 
stream was Soissons, also French. Fifteen miles to 
the westward, on the south bank of the Oise, was 
Pont Ste. Maxence, which had been given to Philip 
as hostage instead of Compi^gne ; and northwest, on 
the Aronde, was Gurnay. This little town Philip 
summoned to surrender, and its captain made the 
best terms he could : he would give over the place 
on August I, unless relieved, and meantime keep 
strict neutrality. Philip's object was to hold all the 
bridges near Compi^gne, in order to safeguard his 
line of communication ; and on May 8 he had crossed 



246 JEANNE D'ARC 

the Oise at Pont I'fiveque, and camped near Choisy, 
on the north bank of the Aisne. 

Now the French at Compi^gne began to bestir 
themselves. Regnault de Chartres, Vendome, and 
Poton de Saintrailles, who had been jousting in the 
tournaments at Arras, were there, and on May 13 
the Maid arrived. It was decided to cut Philip off 
from his base of supplies by marching directly against 
Pont rfiveque ; and on May 16, the Maid, Poton, three 
other captains and about two thousand men, crossed 
the Oise, and riding up the river at dawn, fell upon 
the garrison. Taken by surprise, the English were 
getting the worst of the fight, when men from Noyon, 
two miles to the north, came to their rescue, and the 
French, attacked in the rear, were obliged to with- 
draw. On this same day, Choisy surrendered to 
Philip, and its captain, a brother of Flavy, with his 
garrison and his gun, retired to Compi^gne. 

The French made a second attempt to reach the 
Burgundians, this time from the east, and their whole 
force rode up the south bank of the Oise to Sois- 
sons, which was held for France by a Picard captain, 
Guichard Bournel, appointed to the post by Cler- 
mont. He refused to let the army enter on the 
usual plea that the soldiers could not be fed, and 
then promptly sold the town to Burgundy for four 
thousand crowns. Jeanne was accused by her enemies 
of swearing when she heard of his treachery, and of 



COMPlfeGNE 247 

saying that if she had Bournel, he should be cut in 
quarters. 

"I have never blasphemed any of the saints," was 
her answer to the accusation. " Those who say so 
have misunderstood." But Guichard Bournel had 
richly earned the punishment which the custom of 
the day meted out to such as he. 

At Soissons, the army melted away, as the country 
could not support it ; and here Jeanne parted forever 
from her false friend, Regnault de Chartres, who, 
however, had not said his last of her. Most of the 
leaders returned to Senlis; Jeanne and her little 
company went to Cr6py. 

Philip razed the castle at Choisy, and then crossing 
the Oise, occupied four villages opposite Compi^gne, 
and settled down in earnest for the siege. Margny, 
the village at the end of the meadow causeway, was 
held by Picards ; Venette, two miles to the west, was 
held by the English under Montgomery, who had 
commanded at Pont I'fiveque; Jean de Luxembourg, 
Comte de Ligny, with the Burgundians and Flemings, 
held Clairoix, two miles from Margny at the conflu- 
ence of the Aronde and Oise ; and Philip himself was 
at Coudun, just beyond the Aronde and four miles 
north of Compi^gne, where he could command the 
line of communication with his Low Countries. 

The Maid heard that the siege was begun and was 
eager to be at the front. She was told that she had 



248 JEANNE D'ARC 

but few men to pass through the hosts of the enemy ; 
but such warning no more withheld her now than it 
had on the road to Chinon. 

" By my staff, we are enough/' she cried. " I will 
go to see my good friends of Compi^gne." 

And today, in front of the Hotel de Ville at Com- 
pi^gne, there stands a fine bronze statue of the Maid, 
with the inscription: 

**Je yray voir mes bons amys de Compiengne, 
1430-1880." 

Compi^gne, like Orleans, does not forget. 

She left Cr^py, with two hundred men, at mid- 
night, and by quick riding through the forest paths, 
entered Compi^gne at dawn. May 23. There is only 
legend to tell us of her day in the city. Nearly seventy 
years later, two old men said that they were at mass 
in the Church of St. Jacques on that morning, and 
the Maid was there, and many other people of the 
city, and more than a hundred; little children. In 
the early days of her triumph, Jeanne had bidden 
Pasquerel remind her of the day when the children 
of the poor received the Sacrament, that she might 
receive it with them ; and now surrounded for the 
last time by loving hearts, she knelt before the altar. 
Her good friends and the children, rapt in wonder of 
the glorious Maid who had been poor as they, pressed 
about her as she leaned against a pillar of the church. 



COMPlfeGNE 249 

and turning to them, she said: **My children and 
dear friends, I tell you that I am sold and betrayed 
and will soon be delivered over to death. I beg you 
to pray God for me; for nevermore shall I have 
power to serve the king or the realm of France." 

Yet Jeanne has said that had she known the hour 
of her capture, she would not have gone out that day, 
and that she never told anyone that she had fore- 
knowledge of her doom; but the legend holds its 
tender truth of the love that was borne her, and of 
her winning gentleness. We can picture her standing 
that morning in the shadow of the great pillar, and 
looking back at the altar of the Crucified One. 
'* Take all things well, for thus it must be," whispered 
her Voice. ** God will aid thee," and turning to the 
faithful hearts around her, she would have said : 
** My children and dear friends, pray for me." 
About five o'clock that evening, the Maid and her 
household, with Poton le Bourguignon, a brother of 
d'Aulon, and four or five hundred men, rode out of 
the town with the idea of surprising the small camp 
at Margny at an hour when the men should be unpre- 
pared for attack. To secure their retreat, Guillaume 
de Flavy set his bowmen and artillery on the walls, 
and ranged below a number of small boats filled with 
archers. The event fell in with their expectation; 
the Picards had laid aside their armor, and taken by 
surprise, were scattered through the village. But 



250 JEANNE D'ARC 

Jean de Luxembourg and eight or ten other gentle- 
men had started from Clairoix in the cool of the 
evening to visit their friends at Margny, and drew 
rein on the cliff above the town to discuss the de- 
fences of Compiegne, when below them rose a great 
hubbub of clashing steel and cries of triumph and 
dismay ; and as they looked over the bluff, one figure, 
the Maid herself, in steel and scarlet and cloth-of- 
gold, loomed above the scrimmage on her big gray 
horse. In a flash they had wheeled and made for 
Clairoix, were back again with their Flemings and 
Burgundians, and were attacking the French on the 
right flank. Twice the Maid drove them back to 
the end of the causeway, but her men began to waver 
and make for the boulevard of the bridgehead and the 
boats. 

" Make for the city," they shouted, " or you and 
we are lost ! " 

But when had she heeded such words } 

" Be silent," she cried. " Only stand, and they will 
be discomfited. Think only of striking upon them." 

And a third time she rallied her men, and the 
enemy were beaten back to the middle of the cause- 
way. But the English had come up from Venette and 
fell upon their rear; the retreat became a rout; Eng- 
lish, French, Picards, were in a struggling mass on the 
causeway, and Flavy's archers on the ramparts could 
not tell friend from foe. The fleeing men streamed 



C0MPI£GNE 251 

into the boulevard, and last of all came the Maid, 
covering the rout, disputing every inch of the way, 
** doing deeds beyond the nature of woman ; there, 
as fortune granted it, for the end of her glory and for 
the last time, as never again should she bear arms." 
Her men had fled, and Flavy ordered the drawbridge 
raised and the gate closed against the oncoming tide 
of English and Burgundians. The Maid and her 
faithful bodyguard — her brothers, d' Aulon and his 
brother, a few more — had been forced from the 
causeway and into the marshy meadows ; but Com- 
pi^gne lay beyond the river, and on this side was only 
the boulevard with its moat and the raised drawbridge. 
She was separated from her people and surrounded. 
** Give yourself up tome," **Give me your faith," they 
cried, one seizing her bridle, another her wrists, while 
a Picard archer dragged her from the saddle by her 
scarlet huque. 

" I have given my faith to another than you," her 
voice rang out, " and that oath will I keep." 

Her " year and little more " were ended. 



XXI 

CAPTIVITY 

JEAN D'AULON and his brother Poton, Pierre 
du Lys, and a few others, were taken with 
the Maid. She was claimed as prisoner by the 
Bastard of Wandonne, whose archer had dragged her 
from the saddle ; but she fell to his superior in com- 
mand, Jean de Luxembourg, who was himself in the 
pay of England. The soldiers, "as joyous as if they 
had taken five hundred prisoners, for they had feared 
her more than all the French captains put together,'* 
led her back to Margny, where only an hour before, 
she had been making havoc among the unarmed Pic- 
ards. Duke Philip and his people came up from 
Coudun, and among them was the soldier-chronicler, 
Monstrelet, who wrote that Philip exchanged with 
the Maid a few words, which he did not "well remem- 
ber." A convenient lapse, no doubt, for the Maid's 
greeting to this great traitor whom she had tried to 
win back to France would not have been a soft one, 
and it is not unlikely that the noble duke forgot his 
chivalry. 

At nightfall Philip returned to Coudun, and spent 
the evening writing a letter of pious rejoicing to his 



CAPTIVITY 253 

city of St. Quentin. " By the pleasure of our Blessed 
Creator, such grace has come to pass that she whom 
they called the Maid has been taken, . . . whereby 
will be seen the error and foolish belief of all those 
who have been inclined and favorable to the deeds of 
this woman." He also sent heralds with the news to 
the Duke of Brittany, to the Duke of Savoy, who 
had been arbiter of those truces with Charles, and 
to the town of Gand. 

At the same time, Jean de Luxembourg despatched 
a letter to his brother Louis, Bishop of Thdrouenne 
and chancellor of France for Henry, whom Bedford 
had left in command at Paris. Bedford himself was 
at Rouen. But the bishop, waiting for no orders from 
England, laid the matter at once before the Univer- 
sity of Paris, and on May 26, the University posted 
o£f a letter to Philip demanding that he send forth- 
with "this Jeanne, violently suspected of many crimes 
touching heresy, to appear before the Council of the 
Holy Inquisition aided by the good doctors and mas- 
ters of the University of Paris and other councillors." 
A second letter followed hard on the heels of the 
first: "We fear much that by the falseness and 
seduction of the Enemy of Hell, and by the malice 
and subtlety of evil persons who, it is said, are taking 
great" pains to deliver this said woman by exquisite 
ways, she will be put out of our jurisdiction in some 
manner. . . . For such great damage to holy faith. 



254 JEANNE D'ARC 

such enormous peril and loss for the whole state of 
the kingdom have not happened in the memory of 
man as would happen if she escaped by such accursed 
ways without due reparation." 

In this letter, and one of like tenor sent to Jean de 
Luxembourg, Pierre Cauchon, Count-Bishop of Beau- 
vais, is commended as the agent empowered by the 
University to negotiate the Maid's transfer. He, it 
will be remembered, had fled from Beauvais in the 
preceding summer, when the town had made its sub- 
mission to Charles, and his hatred of Armagnac 
plunderers had deepened since they had lost him his 
profitable see; in especial hatred did he hold that 
**lyme of the Feende called the Maid," who had 
stirred up trouble when all was going well for those 
who loved Burgundy and England. From Beauvais 
he had gone to London, where he had persuaded 
the Privy Council to recommend him for the vacant 
archbishopric of Rouen ; and he had returned with 
loyalty to his patrons fresh kindled to a consuming 
flame for any obstacle that should block their path 
or his own. He was now between fifty and sixty years 
old, a man of tireless energy and furtive mind, with 
an obstinacy and pride which misfortune had imbued 
with venom. In 1403, he had been rector of the fiercely 
Anglo-Burgundian University of Paris ; he was now 
conservator of its privileges, and, a suppliant for Eng- 
lish favor, no tool more apt for the vengeance of 



CAPTIVITY 255 

England and Burgundy could have been devised 
by fate. 

On July 14, he appeared at the camp before Com- 
piegne, duly commissioned by Bedford, also, to ne- 
gotiate for the Maid ; for when the English heard of 
her capture, they were eager to have her at any price. 
"And although the capture of that woman is not like 
that of a king or prince or other person of great estate, 
whom the king would be entitled to have from any 
vassal for the price of ten thousand crowns, accord- 
ing to the custom of France, yet our lord the king 
offers that sum," was Cauchon's message to Jean de 
Luxembourg. Some English hot-heads were for hav- 
ing her sewn up in a sack and thrown into the river, 
as later they served the wretched shepherd whom 
Regnault de Chartres would have set in her place ; 
but cooler judgment saw the advantage for old Eng- 
land in having her duly tried and burned as a heretic 
and sorceress by an ecclesiastical court. At this time, 
no doubt, most Englishmen believed that she was a 
witch, for no man of those days could think that she 
accomplished her deeds save by supernatural aid, 
which, to her enemies, must seem to come from the 
devil. In such condemnation, Charles of Valois should 
be dishonored with her whom the world credited 
with the glory of his victories and his crowning, and 
through her shameful death a fatal blow be dealt his 
prestige and his consecration turned to sacrilege. So 



256 JEANNE D'ARC 

they meant to buy her at any price, and lend her to 
be tried as a sorceress ; then, if the church failed to 
burn her as a witch, she was still their property to be 
disposed of at will. 

The Luxembourg blood had flowed in the veins of 
kings and emperors, but Jean de Luxembourg sprung 
from a younger branch of this proud house and eked 
out his poor appanage in service with England and 
Burgundy. He saw no reason why he should not sell 
his valuable captive to the only bidder; for in all 
these weeks it is the incredible truth that no effort 
whatsoever had been made by Charles or his council 
or any loyal Frenchman to rescue or ransom the 
Maid. When the University of Paris wrote of those 
who were at pains to release her, they feared proba- 
bility and not fact ; no trouble had been taken, or 
was ever taken, to redeem the girl who, friend and 
foe agreed, had saved the day for France. Her old 
comrades at arms, d'Alen^on, La Hire, Poton de 
Saintrailles, Dunois, were too widely scattered up 
and down the country from Normandy to Cham- 
pagne for any echo of that old battle cry, **Amys! 
amys ! ayez bon courage ! sus I sus / " to rally them 
for the rescue of her who was the greatest soldier of 
them all. And even to their eyes, perhaps, her glory 
had dimmed in that year of wasted hope since Reims. 
As for the king, with the easy oblivion of one who is 
both vain and weak, he chose to forget the hand that 



CAPTIVITY 257 

would have made a man of him ; and in any case, no 
royal gold could have escaped La Tr6mouille's net 
for the purchase of a girl whose day of usefulness to 
him was past. 

But it remained for Regnault de Chartres to mark 
the sum of their infamy. In a letter to Reims, which 
had been so loyal and friendly to the Maid, he told 
of her capture. " She would not take counsel, but 
did everything according to her own will," he wrote; 
and in the same breath he announces that there had 
lately come to the king a young shepherd, " who said 
neither more nor less than Jeanne the Maid." Then 
he lets his own mean spirit speak through the boy, 
who said: "God had suffered her to be taken be- 
cause she was puffed up with pride and had worn 
fine clothes, and had not done what God bade her, 
but had followed her own will." This wretched boy, 
riding sidewise like a girl, was actually allowed to go 
with the army ; but when the English caught him a 
year later, no one valued him at a groat, and without 
talk or ceremony he was sewn up in a sack and flung 
into the Seine. 

Perhaps for very shame French chivalry has held 
its peace about the Maid's captivity, and but one 
friendly voice speaks to us from that past. The Arch- 
bishop of Embrun, who had given his testimony for 
her after Orleans, wrote the king such words as 
might have lashed even that craven spirit to action : 



258 JEANNE D'ARC 

*' I beg you for the recovery of this girl and for the 
ransom of her life, spare neither effort nor gold, no 
matter at what price, unless you would incur the 
indelible shame of a most disgraceful ingratitude." 
And so he sets forth the world's judgment of Charles 
of Valois. 

But the common people, the good townsmen, were 
loyal to their Maid. We know Orleans never forgot, 
and unwaveringly celebrated the Fete of the Eighth 
of May. At Tours the council ordered public prayers 
for her deliverance, and all the clergy, walking bare- 
foot, made a great procession. Her judges were to give 
her comforting hint of those prayers for succor when 
they asked her if people had ever offered masses and 
prayers for her ; she replied that she knew nothing of 
it, nor if they did so was it by her order. *' Yet," she 
said, ** if they prayed for me, my opinion is they did 
not do ill." And a prayer, which was offered in the 
churches of far-off Dauphiny, has come down to us : 

"Almighty and Everlasting God, Who of Thine 
unspeakable mercy and marvellous goodness hast 
caused a virgin to arise for the uplifting and preser- 
vation of France and for the confusion of its ene- 
mies, and hast permitted her by their hands to be 
cast into prison, as she labored to obey Thy holy 
commandments ; Grant unto us, we beseech Thee, 
through the intercession of the ever Blessed Virgin 
and all the Saints, that she may be delivered from 



CAPTIVITY 259 

their power unhurt, and finally may accomplish the 
same work which Thou hast commanded her. Give 
ear, Almighty God, to the prayers of Thy people, 
and through the Sacrament of which we have par- 
taken, and by the intercession of the ever Blessed 
Virgin and all the Saints, break in pieces the fetters 
of the Maid, who labored to perform the work which 
Thou hadst appointed her, and now by our enemies 
is held in prison. Grant that she by Thy goodness 
and mercy may go forth to finish unhurt that which 
remains for her to accomplish, through Jesus Christ 
our Lord." 

From Margny, Jeanne had been hurried to the 
camp at Clairoix; thence, for greater safety, some 
twenty miles northward to the Luxembourg castle 
at Beaulieu, of which the Bastard of Wandonne was 
captain. She was treated honorably as an important 
prisoner of war, and Jean d'Aulon was allowed to 
accompany her and wait upon her. Jean de Luxem- 
bourg needed money, but he did not snap too eagerly 
at the golden bait dangled before his eyes by Cau- 
chon. Ten thousand crowns were not quickly come 
by, and until he had the cash, he meant to keep 
his prize. Meantime, he may have reflected, the Ar- 
magnacs might offer a larger ransom ; but Charles of 
Valois never offered a sou for the girl who had made 
him king. 

At Beaulieu news came to the prisoners that things 



26o JEANNE D'ARC 

were going ill at Compi^gne, and their guards, no 
doubt, made out a dark tale of the besieged town. 

"That poor town of Compi^gne which you have 
loved so much," said d'Aulon one day, "will now be 
given up to the enemies of France." Whereupon the 
Maid broke out into accurate prophecy of future 
events, as she not infrequently did, to the manifest 
disconcerting of her enemies, in the months that 
followed. 

"It shall not be," she cried, "for all the places 
which the King of Heaven has restored to the gentle 
King Charles by my aid will never be retaken by his 
enemies, if he be diligent to guard them." 

Here she struck the old note again : " God will 
work, if men will work." 

And men did work at Compiegne. Flavy and the 
brave townsmen held out until late October, when 
Vendome and Boussac came to their aid, the Bur- 
gundians were routed, and abandoned their artillery 
and supplies. Many of the neighboring towns re- 
turned to the king's allegiance, and by the stubborn 
loyalty and courage of Compiegne, the key of north- 
ern France, Burgundy's whole carefully constructed 
campaign for 1430 was quashed. 

Yet in spite of that confident prophecy to d'Aulon, 
the fate of the town hung heavy on the Maid's spirit, 
and she watched every chance to elude her jailers 
that she might again "go to her good friends of 



CAPTIVITY 261 

Compi^gne." *' Never was I prisoner in such a place 
that I would not willingly have escaped," she said in 
a later month ; and at Beaulieu one day she locked 
her guards in a tower and was about to slip out into 
the wooded country, when the porter saw and stopped 
her. " It did not please God that I should escape this 
time," she said. 

But Jean de Luxembourg could no longer trust the 
walls of Beaulieu, and after a few weeks there, he 
took the Maid northward again to his castle of Beau- 
revoir, beyond St. Quentin in the plain of Picardy, 
where his wife and stepdaughter and aunt were liv- 
ing. Twelve years before he had married the widow 
of Robert de Bar, an overlord of Domremy, who had 
been slain at Agincourt. She and her daughter must 
have been more French than Burgundian at heart, 
and one can imagine them having many a talk with 
this girl from their old home in the benignant coun- 
try of the Vosges, who had been making the whole 
world ring with her exploits, and had struck the first 
blow to wipe out the shame of Agincourt and Ver- 
neuil. Jean de Luxembourg's aunt, Comtesse de Pol 
et Ligny, Demoiselle de Luxembourg she was called, 
was now old and sick and had elected Jean to be her 
heir ; and she too, like all women, was won by the 
Maid, and more than once begged her nephew not to 
sell the girl to her certain doom. These good women 
tried to make Jeanne give up her man's dress, which 



262 JEANNE D'ARC 

she had worn since she rode out of Vaucouleurs, 
eighteen months before ; but although she had taken 
it for greater ease in travelling and fighting, and for 
the protection it gave since she must be with men, 
she had come to look upon it as a symbol of her 
mission which was to be worn until her work was 
done. 

" It is not yet time," she told the ladies of Beaure- 
voir, when they offered her woman's dress or cloth 
for the making. " I have not leave from our Lord." 

One day two men from Tournai chanced to come 
to Beaurevoir, and visited Jeanne in her prison. They 
had witnessed her triumph at Reims, where they had 
represented their town at the coronation in answer 
to her letter to the "gentle, loyal Frenchmen of 
Tournai," who so well maintained " the good quarrel 
of the realm of France," that Charles granted them 
the royal blazon for the city's arms. Through her 
visitors, Jeanne made an appeal to Tournai for twenty 
or thirty crowns, which perhaps she hoped to use in 
some scheme of escape, and a few months later the 
townsmen sent her the gold. She often had another 
visitor of a different cast, one Haimond de Macy, a 
young squire of the Luxembourg retinue then living 
at Beaurevoir, who amused himself by talking with 
the Maid and even attempting some rough familiarity. 
But she took his jests in ill part, and promptly re- 
pelled his rudeness. " She was indeed of modest bear- 



CAPTIVITY 263 

ing, both in word and deed," reflected Haimond many 
years later, and he piously added : " I believe her to 
be in paradise." 

Always the Maid was chafing to be gone where 
good blows should be struck for France ; although 
she had known her time was to be short, her sane 
strong youth could not easily accept the decree that 
its day of usefulness was done. By this time, also, 
she must have known of Jean de Luxembourg's bar- 
gaining with England, and perhaps it was one of 
Haimond de Macy's jests to tell her that when Com- 
piegne was taken all beyond the age of seven years 
were to be put to the sword. 

" I would rather die than live after the destruc- 
tion of such good people," she said ; and then, with a 
thought to Pierre Cauchon and his blood money, she 
added : " Also would I rather die than be in the hands 
of my enemies of England." 

She had parted from Jean d'Aulon at Beaulieu, no 
word had come to her of help or succor from the old 
friends or the old life, she knew she was sold to Eng- 
land, and day after day she brooded on her escape. 
The castle was surrounded by high walls and a moat, 
and she was lodged in a great tower overlooking the 
flat dim northern country which was so different 
from the hills and bright valley of the Meuse. 

" How can God leave these good people of Com- 
piegne, who have been and are so loyal to their lord, 



264 JEANNE D'ARC 

to die ? " they heard her say as she paced her tower. 
Freedom seemed to be waiting for her down there 
sixty feet below, and the thought came to her again 
and again to throw herself down the sheer height ; 
she might live and escape by secret forest paths to 
Compi^gne. Her Voices plainly forbade the venture, 
and almost every day she heard St. Catherine say : 

"Do not leap. God will help you and those at 
Compiegne." 

" Since God will help those at Compiegne, I wish to 
be there," she pleaded ; and perhaps with a pang the 
thought came again that her "year and little more" 
were over. Could it be that she had saved France, 
and yet France needed her no more ? 

" Be resigned," whispered the Voice. " Do not 
falter. You will not be delivered before seeing the 
King of England." 

"In truth, I do not wish to see him," the girl pro- 
tested. " I would rather die than fall into English 
hands," and again came the temptation to dare her 
desperate chance of escape. 

"In the end," she said, "for fear of the English, 
I leaped, and commended myself to God and our 
Lady." 

She was picked up for dead, and for several days 
she could neither drink nor eat. 

Probably the Luxembourg ladies visited her, and 
reproached her with wishing to kill herself. 



CAPTIVITY 265 

" I would rather give up my soul to God than be 
in the hands of the English," she answered ; yet, in 
fact, she had hoped only for escape and to avoid being 
given over to her enemies. She knew that in disobey- 
ing her Voices, she had committed a sin ; but each 
day St. Catherine consoled her, bidding her confess 
her fault and ask God's pardon. 

" They of Compi^gne will have help before St. Mar- 
tin's Day," the Voice told her, as, indeed, the event 
proved. 

" Then," said she, having made her peace with God 
and renewed her hope, "I recovered and began to 
eat." 



XXII 

ROUEN 

PIERRE CAUCHON had been travelling back 
and forth, to Duke Philip and Jean de Luxem- 
bourg, to the camps at Compi^gne, to Beau- 
revoir, to Normandy, to Flanders ; and England's 
fee of seven hundred and sixty-five livres he richly 
earned. The Maid's price was settled, finally, at ten 
thousand pounds in gold, and not a bond for the 
amount according to Cauchon's first offer ; while an 
annuity satisfied the Bastard of Wandonne's claim 
upon the prisoner. But England meant to take the 
money out of French pockets ; and in August the 
Estates of Normandy were convoked to raise a war 
chest of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, 
of which ten thousand were to be converted to the 
"payment of the price of Jeanne the Maid, said to 
be a sorceress, a person of war, leading the hosts of 
the dauphin." There was no doubt in English minds 
that she had captained the king's armies. Normandy 
was at some trouble to raise the levy; but in late 
October or November Jean de Luxembourg received 
his ten thousand pounds, and although Jeanne was 
named a "person of war," she was sold and bought 



ROUEN 267 

to be burned as a witch for the justification of Eng- 
land and the shaming of France. The old Demoiselle 
de Luxembourg had pleaded in vain : her nephew pre- 
ferred gold to sentiment, and he sold his prisoner to 
the only bidder, who valued her at a royal ransom. 

In late October, probably, Jeanne was taken to 
Arras, where Philip held his court, and let us hope 
that she heard that Compiegne had been relieved on 
the twenty-fourth, three good weeks before the Mar- 
tinmas set by her Voices as the limit of the siege. 
At Arras, Sire Jean de Pressy, the duke's chamber- 
lain, who had been present at her capture, tried to 
induce her to take woman's clothes, and had the usual 
answer, ** It is not yet time." Here, also, she saw the 
only picture of herself she had ever seen, nor had she 
ever caused one to be made, she said. It was in the 
hands of a Scotch archer, and represented her in full 
armor, kneeling and presenting a letter to the king. 
Neither now nor later did she give up her hope of 
escape, and when her judges asked whether she had 
files at Beaurevoir and Arras, she only said, " If they 
were found on me, I have no need to answer." Per- 
haps they were smuggled in with the gold pieces from 
Tournai, which somehow were put into her hands at 
Arras. 

Now the English had bought and paid for her, she 
was taken to their strong old fortress at Crotoy, look- 
ing out over the gray waters of the Channel, where 



268 JEANNE D'ARC 

her "fair duke," d'Alengon, had been imprisoned 
after Verneuil; and when they had her there, accord- 
ing to the chronicle, they "rejoiced as greatly as if 
they had received all the wealth of Lombardy." 

On the way, she and her escort passed one night 
at the Castle of Drugy, near the town and splendid 
old Abbey of St. Riquier, and two monks from the 
abbey and some of the principal townsmen of St. Ri- 
quier visited her, "and all had compassion to see her 
persecuted, being very innocent." They must also 
have passed near Crecy, where England won the first 
great battle of the Hundred Years' War ; and per- 
haps, also, they had halted at Rue, in whose old Cha- 
pelle du St. Esprit was the miraculous Crucifix which 
was said to have floated in from Jerusalem on the 
first Sunday of August, 1109. Four miles farther, 
by a white winding road, is Crotoy, standing at the 
broad estuary of the Somme. The castle was a mourn- 
ful place in late November, with the sea lapping its 
walls and autumn winds swirling about battlement 
and turret ; and here, in gray days which matched the 
melancholy year, the Maid had time to gather strength 
for the last terrible conflict of her life. She often re- 
ceived consolation from her Voices, and St. Michael, 
who had summoned her to her " sacred charge " in 
the garden at Domremy, visited her, and then came 
no more. 

At Crotoy, the English treated her honorably, like 



ROUEN 269 

any prisoner of war, — she was not yet in Pierre Cau- 
chon's hands, — and here she knew human kindness 
and love for the last time. Nicolas de Queuville, chan- 
cellor of the church of Amiens, was her fellow pris- 
oner in the castle, and he often heard her in confes- 
sion and gave her the Sacrament. Later he had "many 
good things to say of this virtuous and very pure 
young girl." There is a pretty story, also, of a visit 
from some ladies of quality of Abbeville, who came 
down the river in a boat, " to see her as a marvel of 
their sex and as a generous soul inspired by God for 
the well-being of France. They congratulated her on 
having had the good fortune to have been so constant 
and so resigned to the will of our Lord, wishing her 
all kinds of favors from heaven. The Maid thanked 
them cordially for their kind visit, commending her- 
self to their prayers, and kissing them affectionately, 
as she said: A Dieu, These worthy people shed tears 
of tenderness as they took leave of her, and returned 
in company by boat on the river Somme, as they had 
come, for it is five leagues from Abbeville to Crotoy." 
Down near the wharves of Crotoy there stands a 
bronze statue of the Maid in peasant dress, gazing 
out across the river, and in the inscription are the 
words: "To this daughter of the people, who, full of 
faith in the destinies of France when all despaired, 
delivered our country. . . . Let us remember always, 
Frenchmen, that our country was born from the heart , 






270 JEANNE D'ARC 

of a woman, from her tenderness and her tears, from 
the blood she shed fdr us." 

The University of Paris was becoming impatient 
for its prey. Six months had passed since it had de- 
manded the sorceress for trial, and now a sharp re- 
buke was sent to Cauchon:" Perchance if your Grace 
had shown keener diligence in this matter, the cause 
of the said woman would already have been brought 
before the ecclesiastical court," and he was asked to 
arrange for her trial at Paris. The same day a letter 
was posted off to Henry, reminding him of his duty 
to put down heresy, and beseeching him to hand over 
the woman called the Maid to the Bishop of Beau- 
vais and the Inquisitor General for her due trial and 
punishment, signed "Your very humble and devoted 
daughter, the University of Paris." The University 
wronged its agent ; no bloodhound of them all was as 
eager on the Maid's track as Pierre Cauchon, — the 
delay had been none of his making. Jean de Luxem- 
bourg would not give up his prisoner until he saw 
the color of that Norman gold ; and then the English 
had hesitated about the best course to pursue, for 
they had no notion of sending the Maid to Paris to 
risk her capture in the unquiet He de France, nor did 
they wish to take her to England. All her enemies 
were agreed that the Maid should be tried as a sor- 
ceress and heretic, and with pomp and precision suf- 
ficient to impress the world which had held her as 



ROUEN 271 

the messenger of God sent to save France; and a 
happy compromise for University and England seemed 
to be a trial held in Normandy by the zealous Pierre 
Cauchon and an officer of the Holy Inquisition sent 
from Paris to sit with him as co-judge. Rouen, the 
great capital of Normandy, where Bedford had his 
headquarters, was the natural point of choice for the 
trial : here the prisoner could be safely held by Eng- 
lish guards, and if by any chance she should escape 
her French judges, there was still the sack and the 
river, and England could have the worth of that ten 
thousand pounds. 

Early in December the Maid was taken from 
Crotoy, and for the last time rode in the open, with 
a good horse under her and men-at-arms, even if 
enemies, about her. At floodtide they would have 
crossed to St. Valery on the hill beyond the Somme, 
and followed the bleak shore road for sixteen miles 
to Eu, on the little river Bresle, which marks the 
bound of Normandy. From Eu, the old Roman road 
zigzags to Dieppe, by the village of Criel, — where, 
perhaps, Jeanne had a chance to say a prayer in the 
old church while men drank and horses fed, — then 
out through the fields and back to the sea, and down 
to the port. Thence the road lay due south through 
gentle Norman orchard and meadow, and there the 
patient flood of the Seine walked among its wooded 
islands, and then Rouen and its spires, — Rouen, and 



272 JEANNE D'ARC 

nevermore free foot on the highway, free glance to 

heaven. 

The cavalcade stopped at the ancient Castle of 
Philip Augustus close to the northern wall, where 
Warwick was commander and Bedford held his court, 
and little Henry of England was to be received be- 
fore Christmas Day ; but Jeanne was to know nothing 
of regent's court or royal guest, and was immediately 
locked in a cell eight steps up from the postern 
gate of a great tower that looked toward the fields, 
where air and light struggled feebly through a narrow 
slit in the twelve-foot wall. For the first time, the 
girl was heavily fettered ; even at night her ankles 
were ironed and fastened to a chain which passed 
under her bed and was locked to a heavy beam at 
the foot ; and the English ordered a great iron cage 
or huche for their prisoner, where she could be held 
chained by neck, hands and feet. No one admits 
having seen her in this cage, but it stood there a 
continual menace of misery which her jailers probably 
were not slow to use in their pleasantries. For 
greatest infamy of all, the Maid, whose exquisite 
modesty had been remarked and reverenced by the 
roughest of French soldiery, and whose purity had 
slain evil before it could be born to thought, was 
watched day and night by five varlets from the lowest 
class of common soldiers. John Gray and William 
Talbot, of Warwick's household, were captains of 



I ^ 



ROUEN 273 

the guard ; three of the men never left her cell, two 
stood at the door without. Whether the cage was 
used or not, she was never unchained except to ap- 
pear in court, where she was not summoned until 
mid-February ; and for two months the girl, fettered, 
lay in her cell, tended only by her boorish guards. 
If she was to be tried by the church, she should have 
been placed in an ecclesiastical prison, where women 
would have guarded her; but the English preferred 
to watch their prize, and the only point for either 
party was that she should burn as a witch, self-con- 
fessed, perhaps, if unendurable imprisonment might 
break her spirit. Yet the doors of heaven, which 
had answered to her touch since the summer noon 
at Domremy, were open still ; and daily and many 
times a day she saw St. Catherine and St. Margaret, 
who whispered their words of comfort and counsel. 

"But sometimes I fail to understand," said Jeanne, 
** because of the great disturbance in the prison and 
the noise made by my guards." 

Without doubt Cauchon had visited her, and then, 
and many times later, she begged that she might 
hear mass; but then and later, "by the advice of 
notable doctors,'* he refused the Sacraments of the 
church, because of the "crimes of which the said 
woman was accused and the impropriety of the dress 
which she persists in wearing." 

And the Duchess of Bedford, with some of her 



274 JEANNE D'ARC 

women, once came to the cell, and thereafter testified 
that Jeanne was an honest woman and should be 
treated as such by her guards ; and later when the 
Maid complained to her judges of the violence of 
her keepers, Warwick threatened them mightily and 
appointed others in their place. But those were not 
quiet days in the company of John Gray's men. 

People, inquisitive or malicious, came to look at 
the Armagnac Witch in her cell. One Pierre Cus- 
quel, who was employed by Johnson, master mason 
of the castle, had access to the tower and saw her in 
chains, and he saw the great huche where it was said 
she was to be caged. Lawrence Guesdon, burgher 
and deputy bailly, was so anxious to see her that he, 
too, went to the castle ; and Pierre Darron, deputy, 
also moved by curiosity, with Pierre Manuel, advo- 
cate of the King of England, visited her. 

" You would not have come here if you had not 
been brought," said Manuel in sorry jest as he looked 
about him. " Did you know, before you were cap- 
tured, that you would be taken?" 

" I feared it." 

** Why, then, did you not guard yourself that day } " 

" I knew neither the day nor the hour," replied 
the Maid. 

And once Jean de Luxembourg had the face to 
visit her in the prison to which he had sold her. His 
brother Louis, Bishop of Th^rouenne, and the Eng- 



ROUEN 275 

lish Earls of Stafford and Warwick came with him, 
and Haimond de Macy, also, was of the company. 

"Jeanne, I have come to ransom you, if you will 
promise never again to bear arms against us," was 
the easy greeting of the Sire de Luxembourg. 

" In God's name, you mock me, for I know you 
have neither the will nor the power," answered the 
girl as she sat there in her chains; and his pleas- 
antry fell flat, although he weakly proffered it again. 
Then the tables were turned, and the Maid spoke out 
with all her old free spirit : " I know well that these 
English will do me to death, thinking when I am 
dead to gain the kingdom of France; but if they 
were a hundred thousand Godons more than they are 
now, they shall not have the kingdom." 

Whereupon Lord Stafford was so goaded to rage 
that he half drew his dagger to slay her, but War- 
wick stayed his hand. And the Maid faced him down 
as steadily as ever she had wolf of the Bois Chesnu. 



XXIII 

THE PUBLIC HEARINGS 

PIERRE CAUCHON did not get his court 
into full working order until January 9, and 
it was more than a month later when the 
Maid was summoned to appear. To gather material 
for a preliminary indictment, he had cast his drag- 
net wide for any information he might color to his 
purpose. At Domremy his commissioners were too 
honest for their work ; and Cauchon had called one 
officer a traitor for his pains and said he had not done 
as he had been told, nor was he, Cauchon, the man 
to pay for information that could be of no use to him. 
Whereupon the man told broadcast that he had 
learned nothing that he would not willingly know of 
his own sister, although he had made inquiries in five 
or six parishes. Yet stories of the fairies* tree, and 
the mandrake, and the Little People, and the magic 
properties of the Fountain of the Thornbush were 
skilfully woven into the fabric of the trial. 

Cauchon claimed jurisdiction in the case by argu- 
ment that the prisoner had been taken in his see of 
Beauvais, although the better opinion seems to have 
been that his diocese ended with the bridgehead at 



THE PUBLIC HEARINGS 277 

Compi^gne ; and he had to obtain canonical permis- 
sion to hold his court at Rouen. Backed as he was 
by Bedford, whom they had recently made a canon, the 
cathedral chapter dared refuse him nothing, although 
they had little love for the outsider who was angling 
for their archbishopric, and had been so zealous in 
collecting the English levy of thirty thousand pounds 
upon Norman clergy that an appeal had been made 
to the Pope. 

On January 3, King Henry, "having been so re- 
quested by the Bishop of Beauvais and our dear and 
well-beloved daughter, the University of Paris," had 
commanded the guard to conduct their prisoner to 
the bishop. "It is our intention, however," the letter 
rehearsed, "to retake into our custody the aforesaid 
Jeanne, in case she should not be convicted of the 
aforesaid crimes." But meanwhile England gave Cau- 
chon a free hand for his trial. It was her policy to 
have the Maid convicted by French churchmen, and 
it is only at the weakening of any tissue that one 
sees the whole fabric backed by English strength. 
It is noteworthy that no Englishman appeared in the 
trial. Henry and his retinue were at the castle for 
six weeks, and might have been at Windsor for any 
mention that is made of them, although Jeanne, no 
doubt, at some time " saw the King of England," as 
her Voices had promised ; Bedford is alluded to but 
once ; Warwick and Stafford appear as we have seen, 



278 JEANNE D'ARC 

Warwick using his office as commander chiefly to 
play the bully ; only Cardinal Beaufort, the church- 
man, plays any part in the drama, and then as the 
curtain falls. 

On Tuesday, January 9, Cauchon opened his court 
in the royal council chamber of the castle : two ab- 
bots, a prior, the cathedral treasurer and four canons 
were present. Jean d'Estivet, a canon of Beauvais, 
who had been driven out with his bishop and was 
a tool worthy of his master's hand, was made pro- 
moter or prosecuting attorney of the case. Jean de 
La Fontaine was appointed bishop's commissary, a 
kind of vice-president of the court ; but later he was 
threatened by Cauchon for trying to advise the pris- 
oner, and fled the city. Guillaume Manchon, of the 
cathedral chapter, was made clerk. " It is necessary 
to serve the king well," Cauchon told him. " We 
mean to bring a fine case against this Jeanne." That 
Manchon was weak enough to serve the court, and 
yet honest enough to insist that his records should 
be clean, is our lasting gain. He sinned occasionally 
in omission; but what he wrote was borne out by 
fact, and most often he painstakingly transcribed the 
very words spoken by the Maid. Manchon made 
Guillaume Boisguillaume his assistant, and Jean Mas- 
sieu was appointed sergeant or usher of the court ; 
both these men were priests of Rouen. Cauchon 
offered to the court as evidence of his authority his 



THE PUBLIC HEARINGS 279 

own letters and those of the University and the king, 
and the licence of the cathedral chapter giving 
him permission to act. At a second sitting, on Janu- 
ary 13, in his own house, he appointed a committee 
to draw up articles upon which to base his trial, and 
these must be eked out from the meagre reports 
from the valley of the Meuse, and whatever legend 
or hearsay he had been able to glean in France. 

But this was to be no ordinary trial ; and the Holy 
Inquisition must have its part in this case of heresy 
and witchcraft. The Inquisitor General was trying a 
man at St. L6, and Cauchon summoned his vicar for 
Rouen, the prior, Jean le Maitre, to be co-judge. But 
Le Maitre excused himself on the ground that the 
case belonged to the jurisdiction of Beauvais; as a 
matter of conscience he, being sub-inquisitor of Rouen, 
preferred not to " meddle in the matter without due 
authority." Messire Jean le Maitre did not fancy 
this particular witchcraft trial ; but Cauchon saw to it 
that his scruples were overborne by a direct com- 
mand from the Holy Office at Paris, and on March 
13, he took his place on the bench. The other doc- 
tors of law and theology, whose learning gave weight 
to the trial, appeared as assessors, sometimes zealous, 
often reluctant, usually timid, whose advice and votes 
Cauchon, as judge, might, and frequently did, over- 
ride. But Maitre Nicolas de Houppeville of the Dio- 
cese of Rouen was honored by imprisonment for 



28o JEANNE D'ARC 

speaking his mind. In the preliminary consultation, 
he said he did not see how they could proceed, 
for those opposed to the prisoner were acting as 
judges, and she had already been examined by the 
clergy of Poitiers under the Archbishop of Reims, 
who was the metropolitan of the Bishop of Beauvais. 
When Cauchon brought him to book, he retorted that 
he was not his subject nor in his jurisdiction but that 
of Rouen, and so left him. But when he presented 
himself to sit in the trial, Cauchon had him thrown 
into the castle prison, whence he would have been 
exiled to England but for powerful friends ; and 
Cauchon himself perhaps recognized the unwisdom 
of further antagonizing, at this stage of the game, 
the already lukewarm majority of the Rouen clergy. 
Nicolas de Houppeville had stated the case with 
clearness : the church, which had clean acquitted her 
at Poitiers, seemed now to try her again for the same 
offence ; but the University of Paris and Cauchon 
cared not a whit if by some great pretence of law, 
they could please their English masters and burn 
their witch. 

The first public hearing was held on February 21, 
in the royal chapel of the castle ; forty-two assessors 
were present, Pierre Cauchon presided alone. Jeanne, 
who still had faith in her faithless friends, had asked 
in vain that some of her judges might be taken from 
the French party. After nine months of captivity 



THE PUBLIC HEARINGS 281 

and two months of imprisonment cunningly calcu- 
lated to break her strength of body and mind, " this 
woman" accused of many crimes appeared before 
her judges. They saw a slender girl just turned 
nineteen, her short dark hair intensifying the prison 
pallor of her small face, and, a crime in itself to their 
eyes, dressed in a page's suit of black. Calm, cool, 
ready to turn subtle question with the skill of a law- 
yer, or disarm venom with the touching simplicity of 
a child, she faced the men who meant, she knew, to 
do her to death. On the Counsel that had never failed 
she based her strength, and never did her Brothers 
of Paradise serve her so well as in this last great 
battle of her life. 

Required to take an oath to answer truly, she said : 
" I do not know upon what you wish to question 
me ; perhaps you will ask me about things which I 
ought not to tell you." And again : " Of my father 
and my mother and of what I did after taking the 
road to France, willingly will I swear; but of the 
revelations which have come to me from God, to no 
one will I speak save to Charles my king. To you I 
will not reveal them, though you cut off my head, 
because I have received them in visions and by secret 
counsel and am forbidden." Then, on reflection that 
she might consult her Voices, she added : '* Before 
eight days are gone, I shall know if I may reveal 
them to you." And, finally, she agreed to speak the 



282 JEANNE D'ARC 

truth in matters of the faith, keeping silence in 
regard to her revelations. Kneeling, with her two 
hands on the missal, she took the oath. 

The next day, she was again required to take the 
oath. 

"I swore yesterday; that should be enough for 
you. You burden me overmuch. If you were well 
informed, you would wish to have me out of your 
hands. I have done nothing save by revelation." 

Again, on February 24, she turned on Cauchon : 

" I tell you, take good heed of what you say, you 
who are my judge. You take great responsibility in 
thus charging me." And she added, " I should say 
that it is enough that I have sworn twice." 

" Will you swear, simply and absolutely ? " 

" You may surely do without this. All the clergy 
of Rouen and Paris cannot condemn me, if it be not 
law," and she looked around at the ranks of her 
priestly judges, many of whom were already wishing 
themselves out of a sorcery trial such as had never 
been seen. 

Again they required her to swear. 

** I will say willingly what I know, and yet not all. 
I am come in God's name. I have nothing to do 
here. Let me be sent back to God whence I came." 

" A last time we require you to swear," persisted 
her judge. *' You expose yourself to great peril by 
such refusal." 



THE PUBLIC HEARINGS 283 

"I am ready to speak truth on what I know 
touching the trial." And so she took the oath, nor 
could they ever make her take it in any other form. 

She told them the simple story of Domremy and 
Greux. *' From my mother I learned my Pater, my 
Ave Maria, and my Credo." Then, conscientiously, 
"I believe I learned all this from my mother." 

Cauchon, bethinking himself that a witch could say 
the Lord's Prayer only backwards, applied this test 
of the Inquisition. 

" Repeat your PaUr." 

"Hear me in confession, and I will say it willingly,'* 
was the adroit and touching answer, whereby she 
appealed to her judge to become her spiritual con- 
fidant. 

Cauchon ignored the reply, and forbade her to leave 
the prison without permission on pain of the crime of 
heresy. 

** I do not accept such prohibition," said the girl. 
" If ever I do escape, no one shall reproach me with 
having broken my faith, not having given my word 
to anyone, whosoever it may be." Then she com- 
plained of her fetters, and they reminded her that she 
had before sought to escape and must be secured. 

'* It is true I wished to escape, and so I wish still. 
Is not this lawful for all prisoners ? " 

There was such confusion at the first session in 
the royal chapel, that on February 22 the court sat 



284 JEANNE D'ARC 

in the small ornament room at the end of the castle 
hall, and two Englishmen guarded the door. Maitre 
Jean Beaupere, a former rector of the University, 
took up the examination. She told them more of 
Domremy. 

" I learned to spin and sew ; in sewing and spinning 
I fear no woman in Rouen." 

Her judges were to have new light on that " lyme of 
the Feende " who had routed the armies of England. 

She told them, also, of the coming of her Voices, 
and the journey to Vaucouleurs and Chinon. *' It was 
necessary for me to change my woman's garments for 
a man's dress. My Counsel thereon said well." And 
again, of her Voices : "There is not a day when I do 
not hear this Voice, and I have much need of it. But 
never have I asked of it any recompense but the 
salvation of my soul." 

When she had spoken of St. Denis and the assault 
on Paris, came a critical question, by which they 
meant to trap her into an admission of impiety. 

"Was it a festival that day } '* 

" I think it was certainly a festival." 

" Is it a good thing to make an assault on a festi- 
val.?" 

** Passes outrey' "Pass on," her usual response 
when she would give no direct answer to a difficult 
and unfair question, and often the assessors near her 
said : "Jeanne, you say well." 



THE PUBLIC HEARINGS 285 

On the twenty-fourth, Beaup^re was again the 
examiner. 

" How long is it since you have had food or drink?" 

** Since yesterday afternoon." She was keeping her 
Lenten fast with the most rigorous of churchmen. 

The questions went back to her Voices. 

"Yesterday I heard them three times, in the morn- 
ing, at vespers, and when the Ave Maria rang. In 
the morning I was asleep, the Voice woke me." 

" Did you thank it } Did you go on your knees } " 
Beaup^re forgot that she was chained in her bed. 

" I did thank it. I was sitting on the bed. I joined 
my hands. I implored its help. I asked advice as to 
how I should answer, begging it to entreat for this 
the counsel of our Lord. The Voice said to me : 
* Answer boldly. God will help thee.' " Then turning 
to Cauchon, she cried: " You say you are my judge. 
Take care what you are doing, for in truth I am sent 
by God, and you place yourself in great danger." 
Like the captains at Orleans and Jargeau, he had 
his warning. "You say you are my judge. I do not 
know if you are, but take heed not to judge wrongly, 
because you would put yourself in great danger ; and 
I warn you of it, so that if our Lord should punish 
you, I shall have done my duty in telling you." 

They pressed her about the " king's secret," and 
she said that in fifteen days she might have permis- 
sion to say something of her revelation to the king. 



286 JEANNE D'ARC 

" Today I will not answer. I do not know if I ought 
or not." 

Then came her splendid avowal of faith : " But as 
firmly as I believe in the Christian faith and that God 
hath redeemed us from the pains of hell, that Voice 
hath come to me from God and by His command." 

When asked if the Voice came directly from God 
or from an angel or one of the saints, she answered; 

" The Voice comes to me from God, and I do not 
tell you all I know about it. I have far greater fear 
of doing wrong by displeasing it than I have of an- 
swering you." 

" Is it displeasing to God to speak the truth ? " 

*' My Voices have entrusted to me certain things 
to tell to the king, not to you. This very night they 
told me many things for the welfare of my king which 
I would he might know at once, even though I drank 
no wine until Easter, — the king would be the more 
joyful at his dinner ! " 

No thought of her was making the craven Charles 
less joyful at his dinner in his pleasure houses of the 
Loire. 

" Has your Counsel revealed to you that you will 
escape from prison ? '* 

" I have nothing to tell you about that." 

" This Voice from whom you have counsel, has it 
face and eyes } " 

She had said she might tell them more in eight days. 



THE PUBLIC HEARINGS 287 

" You shall not know yet. There is a saying among 
children that sometimes one is hanged for telling the 
truth," and she asked that the points which she did 
not now answer might be given her in writing. And 
at a later time she asked also, as a good lawyer 
might have done, that in case she were taken to Paris, 
she might have a copy of the Rouen testimony for 
reference. 

Beaup^re then caught up a previous allusion. 

" Do you know if you are in the grace of God ? " 

" That is not a suitable question for such a girl," 
interrupted Maitre Jean Lefevre. 

" It will be better for you if you hold your peace," 
remarked Pierre Cauchon, and Maitre Jean was 
silent. 

" If I am not, may God place me there ; if I am, 
may God so keep me. I should be the saddest in all 
the world, if I knew that I were not in the grace of 
God." And then she continued in a kind of lovely 
reverie : " But if I were in a state of sin, do you think 
the Voice would come to me .? I would that everyone 
could hear the Voice as I hear it. I think I was about 
thirteen when it came to me for the first time." 

" Would you like to have a woman's dress ? " they 
asked her. 

" Give me one, and I will take it and be gone. 
Otherwise, no. I am content with what I have, since 
it is God's pleasure that I wear it." 



288 JEANNE D'ARC 

On Tuesday, the twenty-seventh, Beaup^re's first 
question was for her health since Saturday. 

" You can see for yourself how I am," Jeanne an- 
swered. "I am as well as I can be." 

The girl's magnificent endurance was being 
stretched to the utmost. She had been both peasant 
and warrior, and was inured to hardship of climate 
or action; but the suffering of ignominy and de- 
ferred hope were ills she was least fitted to bear, and 
with every instinct of healthy young life thwarted 
and the reticence of her woman's modesty continu- 
ally outraged, it is no wonder that her strength was 
beginning to bend. Yet she met her judges day after 
day with unflagging courage and wit, and Maitre 
Jean Sauvage, who was one of the assessors, said he 
had never seen a woman of such years give so much 
trouble to her examiners. 

The judges tried to confuse her, swinging quickly 
from point to point, flooding her with questions, in- 
terrupting one another. 

" Fair sirs, one after another," chided the girl, in 
her gentle courtesy ; and in entire dependence upon 
her Voices, she found calmness and wisdom. 

" I take counsel with my Voices about what you 
ask me," she told them again and again. ** If I an- 
swered without leave, I should no longer have my 
Voices as warrant. When I have permission from 
our Saviour, I shall not fear to respond." 



THE PUBLIC HEARINGS 289 

Strange words these for a sorceress and heretic. 

As Massieu had led her from prison to courtroom, 
they passed the castle chapel, with the Host on its 
altar, and Jeanne begged leave to " kneel and adore 
her Lord." D'Estivet, who outran his master in ven- 
omous zeal, saw this and attacked Massieu for his 
leniency. 

" Traitor ! how dare you let that excommunicate 
approach without permission ! I will have you put in 
a tower where you shall see neither sun nor moon 
for a month, if yo.u go on in this way," and he stood 
in the chapel doorway, to cheat her of her moment 
of prayer. Yet, as she passed, she would ask in her 
sweet voice : 

" Is not the Body of our Lord in that chapel ?" as 
if to draw comfort from that sure knowledge. 

Beauvais had found a tool especially fitted for his 
use in one Nicolas Loiselleur, a canon of Rouen, who 
in the guise of a fellowcountryman from Lorraine 
visited Jeanne in her cell, and by sympathy and kind 
words drew from her information on which questions 
for the following day were often based. As he could, he 
also advised her for her hurt, but Jeanne looked else- 
where for her counsel. At the first hearings, he had 
stationed two English clerks behind a curtain to take 
down a garbled form of the testimony, and when the 
notes of the morning session were read over that 
afternoon at the bishop's lodgings in the presence of 



290 JEANNE D'ARC 

the assessors, their minutes clashed with those of 
Manchon and Boisguillaume, who, however, stuck to 
their version and were found to be correct when a 
disputed point was referred to the prisoner. These 
men, also, to their lasting credit, had flatly refused 
to hide in a room, with a so-called " Judas-ear," ad- 
joining Jeanne's cell, to take notes for Cauchon of 
her conversations with Loiselleur, who, from first to 
last, was a traitor and a spy, a worthy friend of my 
Lord of Beauvais. 

Among these renegade churchmen were a few who 
bear a clean record. One Jean Lohier, " a grave Nor- 
man clerk," had come to Rouen, and the scheme of 
the trial was laid before him for his opinion, which 
was, flatly, that it was of no value, and for four reasons : 
it had not the form of an ordinary process ; it was 
carried on in a place where those concerned were not 
at liberty to say their full will ; the matter dealt with 
the honor of the King of France, yet neither he nor 
a representative had been summoned ; and no articles 
had been drawn for a guide to the prisoner, " a simple 
girl, answering the masters and doctors on great 
matters." Next day Lohier said to Manchon : 

" You see the way they are proceeding. They will 
take her, if they can, in her words — as in asser- 
tion where she says, * I know for certain * regarding 
her apparitions. If she said, *I think,' it is my opinion 
that no man could condemn her. It seems they act 



THE PUBLIC HEARINGS 291 

rather from hate than otherwise, and for that reason 
I will not stay here, for I have no desire to be in it." 

" This Lohier wants to put fine questions into our 
process," said Cauchon to his confederates. " He 
would find fault with everything and say it is of no 
value. It is clear enough on which foot he limps. By 
St. John ! we will do nothing in the matter, but will 
go on as we have begun." Yet he invited Lohier to 
remain for the trial ; but the clerk, with a thought to 
Nicolas de Houppeville, deemed it wise to leave the 
city, and died dean of appeals at Rome. 

When the eight days had expired, Jeanne told her 
judges of St. Michael and St. Catherine and St. 
Margaret. " I saw them with my bodily eyes as well 
as I see you. I believe it was they as firmly as I 
believe there is a God. If you do not believe me, go 
to Poitiers." She often referred to the **Book of 
Poitiers," but if there had ever been a record of her 
testimony, no doubt Regnault de Chartres took care 
that it should be destroyed. Of the persons of her 
saints she would say little, and to foolish questions 
she gave fitting answer. 

" Does St. Margaret speak English } " 

" Why should she speak English when she is not 
on the English side.-*" 

" What promise have they made you } " brought 
forth the disconcerting statement: "They told me 
my king would be reestablished in his kingdom. 



292 JEANNE D'ARC 

whether his enemies willed it or no." She added: 
**They told me, also, that they would lead me to 
paradise. I begged it of them, indeed." 

" Had you another promise from them } " they 
asked, seeking to learn of possible escape. 

" In three months you shall know the other pro- 
mise," and in three months she was burned. 

" Do you think it is well to take a man's dress } " 

"All that I have done by the order of our Lord, I 
think has been well done. I look for good surety and 
good hope in it." 

She would say nothing of her sign to the king, but 
gave them the story of the sword of Fierbois, and 
ended : " I cared very much for this sword, because 
it had been found in the church of St. Catherine, 
whom I love so much." 

"Have you sometimes prayed that it might be 
more fortunate.?" 

" It is good to know that I wished my armor might 
have good fortune." 

At the next sitting she was asked suddenly : 

" What have you to say of our Lord the Pope ? 
and whom do you believe to be the true Pope .?" 

" Are there two ? " was the adroit return. 

Then they read aloud the Comte d*Armagnac*s 
letter about the Popes and her reply. For herself, 
she now said frankly : "I believe in our lord the Pope 
who is at Rome." 



THE PUBLIC HEARINGS 293 

"Are you in the habit of putting the names yiiesus, 
Maria, with a cross, at the top of your letters ?" 

**0n some I put it, on others not. Sometimes I 
put a cross as a sign for those of my party to whom 
I wrote that they should not do as the letter said." 

Her letter to the English at Orleans she acknow- 
ledged save a few words, which probably had been 
interpolated by her clerk, and again she broke out 
into disquieting prophecy : 

" Before seven years are passed, the English will 
lose a greater gage than Orleans, and they will have 
in France a greater loss than they have ever had, and 
that by a great victory which God will send the 
French. They will lose everything in France." She 
said that she knew this by revelation, and that it 
would happen within seven years. In 1436, Charles 
entered Paris, "a dearer gage than Orleans ; " and in 
1439, England lost Normandy, — as to Normandy, 
she erred by one year. "I am sore vexed that it 
should be delayed so long," she added. " I wish it 
might happen before St. John's Day." 

" Did you not say it would happen before St. Mar- 
tin's Day.?" 

" I said that before Martinmas the English might 
perhaps be overthrown," as, indeed, had befallen in 
their rout before Compi^gne. 

Again she flung her defiance in the face of the 
court. 



294 JEANNE D'ARC 

" Do you want me to tell you what concerns the 
King of France? ... I know well that my king 
will regain the kingdom of France. I know it as well 
as I know that you are before me, seated in judg- 
ment. I should die if this revelation did not comfort 
me every day.'* 

*' Have you ever been in a place where the Eng- 
lish were overcome ? " asked Maitre Jean Beaup^re. 

"-£"« nom Dk, surely," she cried. "How mildly 
you put it ! Have not many fled from France, and 
gone back to their own country ? " 

Whereupon a great English lord who was present, 
exclaimed: "Truly this is a brave woman! Would 
she were English ! " and but confirmed the opinion 
of Maitre Thomas Marie, who had said : " I can well 
believe that if the English had had such a woman, 
they would have honored her much and not treated 
her in this manner." But her crime had been that 
she dared shame the pride of England. 

** Have you any rings ? " asked the examiner, and 
turning quickly to Cauchon, she said : 

" You have one of mine ; give it back to me. The 
Burgundians have another. I pray you if you have 
my ring, show it to me. My father and mother gave 
me the one which the Burgundians have. My brother 
gave me the other, — the one you have. I charge you, 
give it to the church," and she denied having cured 
anyone with her rings. 



THE PUBLIC HEARINGS 295 

When they turned again to her saints and her 
soul's estate, she said of St. Michael : 

"It was a great joy to see him. It seemed when I 
saw him that I was not in mortal sin. St. Catherine 
and St. Margaret were pleased from time to time to 
receive my confession, each in turn. If I am in mor- 
tal sin, it is without my knowing it." 

" When you confessed, did you think you were in 
mortal sin } " 

" I do not know if I am in mortal sin, and I do not 
believe I have done its works ; and if it please God I 
will never so be. Nor, please God, have I ever done, 
or ever will do, deeds which burden my soul." 

" Do you think you would have done wrong or 
committed mortal sin by taking woman's dress ? " 

"I did better to obey and serve my sovereign 
Lord, Who is God." 

" Have you sometimes said that the pennons which 
were like yours would be fortunate ? " 

"I sometimes said to my followers : *Go in boldly 
among the English ! ' and I myself did likewise." 
There was all the secret of her magic. 

" When you were before Jargeau, what did you 
bear at the back of your helmet ? Was it not some- 
thing round .? " Evidently there had been some story 
of a halo. 

*'By my faith! there was nothing," settled that 
matter. 



296 JEANNE D'ARC 

They charged her with taking the Bishop of Sen- 
lis's hackney, with permitting people to believe that 
her prayers had restored the child at Lagny, and with 
allowing them to worship herself, and with commit- 
ting sacrilege in attacking Paris on a holy day ; they 
also hinted at witch's spells about the fairies' tree 
and incantations to invoke her saints ; but no fog of 
misrepresentation could withstand the clear rays of 
her lucid truth. 

"Did those of your party firmly believe that you 
were sent by God ? " 

" I do not know if they believed it, and I refer to 
their own feeling in the matter," was the grave an- 
swer. " But even though they do not believe it, yet 
am I sent by God." 

*' Do you not think they have a good belief, if they 
believe this ? " 

"If they believe that I am sent from God, they 
will not be deceived," was the reply. 

And with direct, frank answers concerning many 
events in her stirring years, ending with the story of 
her leap from the tower of Beaurevoir, the six public 
examinations in the ornament room of the castle 
closed on the third of March. 



XXIV 

THE PRIVATE HEARINGS 

MATTERS had not been going well for the 
** beau proch^' ot Messire Pierre Cauchon. 
His prisoner had freely avowed her depend- 
ence upon superhuman counsel ; but her testimony and 
bearing had gone far to show that it was more likely 
to be from God than from the devil. In her two 
weeks' examination, the girl's courage and courtesy, 
her "wise simplicity" and quick wit had been doing 
their work, and there was danger that she might win 
the judges of Rouen as she had won those of Poi- 
tiers. It must be remembered again that the Maid 
was a great person, that her presence made its im- 
mediate impression in village or court, on the battle- 
field, before a tribunal whether of friends or foes ; 
and the power of that compelling personality, unim- 
paired by fetters and contumely, was a force that 
Pierre Cauchon must now take into account. He 
wisely determined to adopt a plan whereby he could 
regulate the size of his court at will, and retain its 
show of authority without the inconvenience of hos- 
tile criticism. To that end he appointed a committee 
to abstract from the testimony any points that might 



298 JEANNE D'ARC 

call for further hearing, when, he told them, " we will 
make a choice of certain doctors, and thus we shall 
not fatigue all and each of the masters who at this 
moment assist us in such great numbers." He in- 
vited them to study the testimony at home, and ex- 
pressly forbade his assessors, more than one of whom, 
no doubt, would have liked to shirk responsibility in 
the preordained verdict, to leave Rouen before the 
end of the trial. 

Many of the doctors had not hesitated to commend 
the prisoner and express dissatisfaction with his con- 
duct of the case. Maitre Jean Chatillon had said the 
court should not put such difficult questions, and had 
been told to let them alone. " I must acquit my con- 
science," he had answered, and was requested to at- 
tend no more hearings unless summoned. One said 
the girl answered with great prudence, except as to 
her revelations. Massieu declared that no man of let- 
ters could reply better, and wondered that she could 
so answer the subtle and captious questions. Pierre 
Darron, who had visited her cell with Pierre Manuel, 
heard several say that she was quite wonderful in 
her answers and had a remarkable memory. Maitre 
Jean Monnet, who sometimes assisted Jean Beaup^re, 
said Jeanne corrected the notaries, and often when 
she was questioned on something that he could see 
she ought not to answer, would say to the examiner : 
** I put it to your conscience whether I ought to an- 



THE PRIVATE HEARINGS 299 

swer that or not." Once she had objected that she 
had covered a point eight days before, and thus and 
so was her answer. Boisguillaume, the assistant no- 
tary, differed, others said she spoke the truth, and 
the answer was found in the minutes of the day, as 
she had indicated. Then she had turned, laughing, 
to Boisguillaume : " If you make mistakes again," she 
told him, " I '11 pull your ears ! " Which incident the 
notaries did not record in their register. 

" What do you think of her answers ? will she be 
burned ? what will happen .? " a priest asked Mas- 
sieu. 

" Up to this time I have seen in her only good and 
honor," he answered. "But I do not know. What 
will happen in the end, God knows ! " 

And that afternoon Cauchon, who had spies at 
every turn, gave Massieu his warning : 

"Be careful ; make no mistake, or you shall be made 
to drink more than is good for you ! " 

In the streets, men were saying that the judges 
were " persecuting her out of perverse vengeance of 
which they gave every sign ; that Beauvais was doing 
everything at the instigation of the King of England 
and his council who were at Rouen, and that he kept 
her in a secular prison against the opinion of the 
court for fear of displeasing the English ; while the 
English believed they could have neither glory nor 
success in arms while she lived." Indeed, they had 



300 JEANNE D'ARC 

not even dared begin the siege of Louviers, for which 
they had levied the cost at the same time as her pur- 
chase money, until she should be dead ; and there, 
twenty miles from Rouen, La Hire, whom she had 
disciplined for his good and permitted only to swear 
by his staff, commanded the garrison, and was power- 
less to give succor. 

Pierre Cauchon had good cause to fear that public 
opinion might break down the flimsy fabric of his 
trial ; and on March lo, when his committee had made 
their report, the sittings of the court were resumed 
in Jeanne's cell, which gave a double advantage : the 
prisoner was deprived of even such brief respite as 
the change from cell to court, and the judge could 
confine his associates to a few trusted henchmen. 

Jean de la Fontaine conducted the examination, and 
there was the usual wrangle about the form of oath. 

" I promise to speak truth on what touches your 
case; but the more you constrain me to swear, the 
later will I answer," was the sum of her argument. 

She told them of her foreknowledge of capture, 
when she had prayed that she might die soon with- 
out the suffering of long captivity, and the answer: 
**Be resigned to all; thus it must be." 

The hearing ended in further question about the 
sign she had given the king, and she first hinted at 
the allegory which later she was to elaborate. 

" An angel from God sent the sign to my king. 



THE PRIVATE HEARINGS 301 

No man in the world could devise so rich a thing as 
this sign ; but the sign you need is that God may de- 
liver me from your hands. That is the most sure sign 
He could send you." 

At the next hearing, they asked her if this angel 
was the same that had appeared to her, and she an- 
swered : 

** It is all one ; and he has never failed me." 

" Has not the angel, then, failed you with regard 
to the good things of life, in that you have been taken 
prisoner ? " 

" I think, as it has pleased our Lord, that it is for 
my wellbeing that I was taken prisoner," was her 
disarming reply. 

"Has your angel never failed you in the good 
things of grace } " 

" How can he fail me, when he comforts me every 
day } My comfort comes from St. Catherine and St. 
Margaret." 

*' Do you call them, or do they come without being 
called } " 

" They often come without being called ; at other 
times, if they do not come soon, I pray our Lord to 
send them." 

" Have you sometimes called them without their 
coming } " 

" I have never had need of them without having 
them." 



302 JEANNE D'ARC 

" Did not your Voices call you ' Daughter of God, 
daughter of the church, great-hearted daughter ' ? " 

"Before the raising of the siege of Orleans, and 
every day since when they speak to me they call me 
often 'Daughter of God.'" 

" Since you call yourself a daughter of God, why 
do you not willingly say * Our Father ' ? " 

" I do say it willingly. Last time, when I refused, 
it was because I meant that my Lord of Beauvais 
should hear me in confession." 

The examinations now lasted for three or four 
hours in the morning, when she must testify fasting 
since her one Lenten meal of the preceding day, and 
were again taken up for two or three hours in the 
afternoon. On the first day after the recess, La Fon- 
taine had asked her if her Voices commanded her to 
take man's dress. 

" All I have done of good, I have done by the com- 
mand of my Voices." 

" In taking man's dress, did you think you were 
doing wrong } " 

"No," was the shrewd answer, "and even now if I 
were with those of my own side in this man's dress, 
it seems to me it would be a great good for France 
to do as I did before I was captured." 

On March 13, Jean le Maitre, the timid Vice-In- 
quisitor of Rouen, constrained by direct order of the 
Holy Office, took his seat as co-judge, and at the ses- 



THE PRIVATE HEARINGS 303 

sions he was usually accompanied by Brother Isam- 
bard de la Pierre, a Dominican monk, who was to 
prove a good friend to the prisoner. 

The examiners returned to her secret sign to the 
king, and as the delay of fifteen days for which she 
had asked was ended, Jeanne proceeded to weave 
them a pretty and perfectly transparent allegory of 
an angel bringing a crown to the king ; later she con- 
fessed that the angel was no other than herself, as 
might have been easily guessed by any save men 
credulous of marvels. 

On the fourteenth, she said that she had asked of 
her Voices three things : " My deliverance ; that God 
would come to the help of the French ; and the salva- 
tion of my soul." 

" My Voices have told me that I shall be delivered 
by a great victory, and they add : * Be resigned ; have 
no care for thy martyrdom ; thou wilt come in the end 
to the kingdom of paradise.' They have told me this 
simply, absolutely, and without fail. What is meant 
by my martyrdom is the pain and adversity that I 
suffer in prison." Did she seek to deceive herself or 
only her judges } " I do not know if I shall have still 
greater suffering to bear ; for that I refer me to God." 

" Since your Voices told you that you would come 
in the end to the kingdom of paradise, have you felt 
assured of being saved and of not being damned in 
hell.?" 



304 JEANNE D'ARC 

" I believe firmly what my Voices have told me, 
— that I shall be saved. I believe it as firmly as if I 
were already there." 

*' After this revelation do you believe that you can- 
not commit mortal sin ? '* 

" I do not know ; and in all things I wait on our 
Lord." 

" That is an answer of great weight." 

" Yes, and one which I hold for a great treasure," 
and so she closed her declaration of faith. 

But her humility rebuked her inspiration, and in 
the afternoon she added : ** On the subject of the 
answer that I made to you this morning on the cer- 
tainty of my salvation, I mean the answer thus : pro- 
vided I keep the promise made to our Lord to keep 
safe the purity of my body and soul." 

" To take a man at ransom, and put him to death, 
while a prisoner, is not that mortal sin ? " 

" I never did it." 

" What did you do to Franquet d' Arras, who was 
put to death at Lagny .? " and she answered with the 
simple story of that capture and execution. 

" Did you give, or cause to be given, money to him 
who took Franquet ? " 

"I am not master of the mint or treasurer of 
France to pay out money so," was the retort. 

"We recall to you : i. That you attacked Paris on 
a feast day. 2. That you had the horse of my lord the 



THE PRIVATE HEARINGS 305 

Bishop of Senlis. 3. That you threw yourself down 
from the tower of Beaurevoir. 4. That you wear a 
man's dress. 5. That you consented to the death of 
Franquet d' Arras. Do you not think you have com- 
mitted mortal sin in these ? " 

As to Paris and that old story of the bishop's horse, 
she answered shortly ; the death of d' Arras she had 
but now explained. " As to my fall from the tower of 
Beaurevoir, I did not do it in despair, but thinking 
to save myself and to go to the help of all those 
brave folk who were in danger. After my fall, I con- 
fessed myself and asked pardon. God has forgiven 
me, not for any good in me : I did wrong, but I know 
by revelation from St. Catherine that, after the con- 
fession I made, I was forgiven." 

*' Did you do penance for it } " 

" Yes, and my penance came to me in great part 
from the harm I did myself in falling." She had done 
wrong and suffered for it, she had asked and received 
forgiveness, and her healthy mind held no morbid 
fear of further punishment. " As to my dress," she 
went on, " since I bear it by command of God and 
for His service, I do not think I have done wrong at 
all. So soon as it shall please God to prescribe it, I 
will take it off." 

On Thursday, the fifteenth, Cauchon brought for- 
ward his great weapon of requiring her to make sub- 
mission to the church. He would have preferred to 



3o6 JEANNE D'ARC 

condemn her by a fair process for all the world to 
see, but the gold soon flaked off his fine trial, leaving 
bare the iron of his purpose to burn her on any pre- 
text ; yet it could not be difficult to prove her insub- 
ordinate to the church as thrust before her in the 
persons of Cauchon and d'Estivet.. 

" What is the church ? " she asked Cauchon. " So 
far as it is you, I will not submit to your judgment, 
because you are my deadly enemy." 

" Would you submit to the judgment of the Pope } '* 
" Take me to him, and I will be content." 
Brother Isambard de la Pierre, who said " that such 
difficult, subtle, crafty questions were put to poor 
Jeanne that the great clerks and learned doctors 
present would have found it hard to answer," seems 
to have given her some advice about submitting to 
the General Council of Basle, and when she heard 
that men of all parties gathered there, she exclaimed : 
" Oh ! if in that place there are any of our side, I 
am quite willing to submit to the Council of Basle." 
" Hold your tongue, in the devil's name ! " shouted 
Cauchon, and he told the clerk to make no note of 
her answer ; whereupon Jeanne said that they wrote 
what was against her, not what was in her favor. But 
Manchon had set upon his page, " and she appeals " — 
he dared write no more. Then she listened to their 
explanation of the difference between the church mili- 
tant and the church triumphant, and asked for time 



THE PRIVATE HEARINGS 307 

to consider her answer that she might evade the trap 
they set for her. It was perhaps that afternoon that 
Brother Guillaume Duval accompanied Brother Isam- 
bard and Jean de la Fontaine to the prison to give 
her some further advice, when Warwick, who had ob- 
served that Brother Isambard had tried to help the 
prisoner by nudging her or making signs to her, way- 
laid them. 

" Why did you touch that wicked person this morn- 
ing, making many signs ? " he cried. ** Mori bleUy vil- 
lain ! if I see you again taking trouble to deliver her 
and to advise her for her good, I will have you thrown 
into the Seine." 

And Brother Isambard thereafter kept silence in 
fear of his life, while timid Brother Guillaume fled to 
his convent of St. Jacques, and appeared no more. 
Every assessor knew that behind Cauchon and his 
trial stood the power of England and her implacable 
resolution to put the Maid to death, by their means 
or another. 

The examination proceeded with a question as to 
whether she had permission from God or her Voices 
to leave prison. 

*' I have asked it many times, but I have not yet 
had it." 

"Would you go now, if you saw your starting 
point t " 

" If I saw the door open, I should go. That would 



3o8 JEANNE D'ARC 

be leave from our Lord. But without this leave, I 
shall not go, unless I make a forcible attempt to go, 
and so learn if our Lord would be pleased ; this on 
the strength of the proverb, * Help thyself, and God 
will help thee.* I say this in order that if I do escape, 
no one may say I did so without God's leave." 

They offered to let her hear mass if she would 
give up man's dress ; a refusal could only mean that 
she held her own will dearer than the offices of the 
church. 

" Have made for me a long dress down to the 
ground, like a daughter of your citizens ; give it to 
me to go to mass, and then on my return I will put on 
again the dress I have ; but I beseech you as earnestly 
as I can, permit me to hear it in the dress I wear at 
this moment and without changing anything ! " 

They tried to entangle her in some admission that 
her Voices might be evil spirits, and then asked : 

"Have you never done anything against their com- 
mand and will } " 

"All that I could and knew how to do, I have 
done and accomplished to the best of my power. 
Whatever I did in my greatest undertakings, they 
always helped me ; and that is a sign that they are 
good spirits." 

"If the devil were to put himself in the form of 
an angel, how would you know if it were a good or 
an evil angel?" 



THE PRIVATE HEARINGS 309 

"I should know quite well whether it were St. 
Michael or a counterfeit," and she went on with her 
touching story of the teaching of St. Michael, that 
he had told her to be a good child and that God 
would help her, — " to come to the help of the King 
of France among other things," she had the pleasure 
of telling them. 

"You have asserted that for speaking the truth, 
men were sometimes hanged : do you, then, know 
any crime or fault in yourself for which you should 
die, if you confessed it ^ " 

"I know of none," she answered simply. 

On March 17, they again demanded that she sub- 
mit herself to the church. 

" The church ! I love it, and would wish to main- 
tain it with all my power, for our Christian faith. It 
is not I who should be prevented from going to 
church and hearing mass!" 

"I will not take it yet," she again answered as to 
her dress. "And if it should happen that I should 
be brought to judgment, I beseech the lords of the 
church to do me the grace to allow me a woman's 
smock and a hood for my head. I would rather die 
than revoke what God has made me do ; and I be- 
lieve firmly that God will not allow it to come to 
pass that I should be brought so low that I may not 
soon have succor from Him, and by miracle." Yet, 
as she felt the toils tightening round her, did that 



3IO JEANNE D'ARC 

dauntless heart in its exhausted body, fail for a mo- 
ment, as she looked at the implacable face of her 
judge ? 

*' As you say that you wear a man's dress by the 
command of God, why do you ask for a woman's 
smock at the point of death ? " 

" It will be enough for me if it be long." 

When they threw in a question about the god- 
mother who had told her of the fairies, she was quick 
to catch their drift : 

"She was held as a good and honest woman, 
neither divineress nor sorceress," she told them. 

"You said you would take a woman's dress that 
you might be let go. Would this please God } " 

"If I had leave to go in woman's dress, I should 
soon put myself back in man's dress, and do what 
God has commanded me. I have already told you so. 
For nothing in the world will I swear not to arm 
myself and put on man's dress. I must obey the 
orders of our Lord." 

" Do you know if St. Catherine and St. Margaret 
hate the English ? " they asked her. 

" They love what God loves ; they hate what God 
hates." 

" Does God hate the English .? " 

" Of the love or hate God may have for the Eng- 
lish or of what He will do for their souls, I know 
nothing; but I know quite well that they will be 



THE PRIVATE HEARINGS 311 

put out of France, except those who shall die there, 
and that God will send victory to the French against 
the English," was the disconcerting reply. 

"Was God for the English when they were pros- 
pering in France ? " 

" I do not know if God hated the French ; but I 
believe He wished them to be defeated for their sins, 
if they were in sin." No churchman could be more 
adroit. 

On the afternoon of March 17, in the presence 
of the two judges, seven assessors, and two witnesses, 
the nine private hearings closed. Cauchon took up 
the examination himself, and returned to the matter 
of her standard, her ring, the reverence she did her 
saints ; but not one of her answers could by any 
imagination show tinge of witchcraft or enchant- 
ment. 

"The standard was commanded by our Lord, by the 
Voices of St. Catherine and St. Margaret, which said 
to me : * Take the standard in the name of the King 
of Heaven,' and because of that I had this figure of 
God and the two angels done. I did all by their com- 
mand." 

" Did you ask them if by virtue of this standard, 
you would gain all the battles wherever you might 
find yourself, and if you would be victorious ? " 

"They told me to take it boldly, and that God would 
help me." 



312 JEANNE D'ARC 

" Which gave most help : you to your standard, or 
your standard to you ? " 

" The victory either to my standard or myself, it 
was all from our Lord." 

Then he reverted to that old cry of the " blood of 
Montereau." 

"Do you think, and do you firmly believe, that 
your king did right in killing, or causing to be killed, 
my lord the Duke of Burgundy ? " 

" It was a great disaster for the kingdom of France. 
But whatever there may have been between them, 
God sent me to the help of the King of France," was 
the extraordinary reply. 

"Why was it that you generally looked at your 
ring when you were going into battle ? " 

"For pleasure, and in honor of my father and 
mother." 

And when Cauchon harked back to the fairies' tree, 
and asked if she hung flowers there in honor of those 
who appeared to her, she answered wearily, " No." 

" Why was your standard taken to the church of 
Reims, for the consecration, more than those of the 
other captains ? " 

" It had shared the strife, it was only right that it 
should share the honor," and with these words the 
preliminary inquiry closed. 

The next day was Passion Sunday, and Cauchon 
called a meeting of the assessors at his lodgings to 



THE PRIVATE HEARINGS 313 

consider the evidence and decide upon further action. 
D'Estivet was instructed to make a digest of the pro- 
ceedings, which should form an act of accusation to 
be submitted to the assessors. 

On the following Saturday, Cauchon, and eight 
others, all tried men and true, visited Jeanne in her 
cell, and Manchon was instructed to read to her the 
register of the previous hearings. Jeanne made oath 
that she would add or change nothing that was not 
the truth, and bade them read without stopping : "If 
I do not contradict at all, I hold it true and acknow- 
ledged." 

At one time she said : 

" I have as surname d' Arc or Romee ; in my coun- 
try the girls take the name of their mother." And 
when they came to her dress, she cried out, with a 
homesick throb for the life that was gone : " Give 
me a woman's dress to go to my mother." Then the 
thought of her " sacred charge " swept back. ** I will 
take it that I may get out of prison ; once outside, I 
will consider what I will do." 

On Palm Sunday, Cauchon, Beaupere, Midi, Mau- 
rice and Courcelles again visited her, and devoted 
their whole argument to the question of her dress, 
only to alarm her into obduracy by the stress which 
this special visit carried. It was their intention, for 
the present, to deal with a stubborn heretic, who, 
however, had more than once in these solemn days 



314 JEANNE D'ARC 

of late Lent begged to hear mass on Palm Sunday 
and to receive the Eucharist on Easter Day. 

They exhorted her " to take the only garment 
suitable to her sex." 

"Speak of the matter to your Voices," they urged, 
" in order that at Easter you may receive the Viati- 
cum." 

" I cannot change my dress ; I cannot, therefore, 
receive the Viaticum. I beg of you, my lords, permit 
me to hear mass in this dress. It does not burden 
my conscience, and is not contrary to the laws of the 
church." 



XXV 

THE ARTICLES 

ON Monday in Holy Week, d'Estivet had fin- 
ished his brief, made up of seventy articles, 
to the satisfaction of the court, as repre- 
sented by Cauchon, Le Maitre and twelve assessors, 
and Cauchon sent out a general summons to his 
men. 

On Tuesday, her fetters were removed, and for 
the first time in nearly a month, Jeanne was led from 
her cell. The court was held, as before, in the orna- 
ment room near the great hall of the castle ; Cau- 
chon and Le Maitre presided, thirty-eight assessors 
were present, d'Estivet opened the case. Cauchon 
offered her the privilege of having as counsel one or 
more of the learned doctors present. 

She thanked him courteously for his pains; "but 
I have no intention of desisting from the counsel of 
our Lord. As to the oath, I am ready to swear to 
speak truth on all that touches the case." 

Thomas de Courcelles, a brilliant young doctor of 
the University, began to read the seventy articles, 
after each of which he asked : " What have you to 
say to this article .<*" This process ran through that 



3i6 JEANNE D'ARC 

day and the next. The questions were garbled re- 
ports of matter brought up in the previous hearings, 
often citing as truth things which she had denied, 
again accusing her of absurd practices of witchcraft, 
or harping on her man's dress, and charging her with 
insubordination to the church. She met each point 
with extraordinary judgment and care. Sometimes 
she referred to a previous answer, or denied the ac- 
cusation pointblank ; again she said : " I refer for a 
part to my previous answer; the rest I deny." Some- 
times she asked for delay ; and when answer seemed 
useless, she said : " I rely on our Lord." One an- 
swer gives the gist of her defence : " The misdeeds 
brought forward against me by the promoter, I have 
not done. For the rest, I refer me to God. Of all the 
misdeeds brought against me, I do not think I have 
committed any against the Christian faith. For the 
conclusions drawn by the promoter, I refer to our 
Lord." 

Again she stated clearly her confession of faith, 
and the facts of her mission. " In the name of God 
I brought the news to my king that our Lord would 
restore the kingdom to him, would cause him to be 
crowned at Reims, and would drive out all his ene- 
mies. I was a messenger from God, when I told the 
king boldly to set me to work and I would raise the 
siege of Orleans. And if my Lord of Burgundy and 
the other subjects of the king do not return to their 



THE ARTICLES 317 

obedience, the king will know how to make them by 
force. ... As to my Lord of Burgundy, I requested 
him by my ambassadors and my letters that he would 
make peace between my king and himself ; but as to 
the English, the peace they need is that they may go 
away to their own country. ... If the English had 
believed my letters, they would only have been wise ; 
and before seven years are gone, they will perceive 
it well enough." 

She denied having used " witchcraft, superstitious 
works, or divinations." She swore on her oath that 
she did not wish that the devil should get her out of 
prison. *' As to fairies, I do not know what they are. 
... As for the good luck of my banner, I refer to 
the fortune sent through it by our Lord." 

In regard to her dress, and her work, and her 
companionship with men, she said : ** I recollect be- 
ing admonished to take woman's dress. ... At Arras 
and Beaurevoir I was invited to take woman's dress. 
I refused it then, and I refuse it still. As to the 
woman's work of which you speak, there are plenty 
of women to do it." As for violent and bloody deeds, 
she said that she had first begged her enemies to 
make peace ; " and it was only in case they would not 
make peace that I was ready to fight." And of the 
letters at Orleans : " I did not send the letters of 
which you speak in pride or presumption, but by 
command of our Lord," "It is true that my com- 



3i8 JEANNE D'ARC 

mand was over men ; but as to my quarters and lodg- 
ings, most often I had a woman with me. And when 
I was engaged in the war, I slept fully dressed and 
armed, not being able always to find a woman." 

As to her visions and revelations: "It is in our 
Lord's power to give revelations to whom He pleases ; 
that which I said of the sword of Fierbois and of things 
to come, I knew by revelation. As for the signs, if 
those who asked for them were not worthy, I could 
not help it. Many a time did I pray that it might 
please God to reveal it to some of this party. . . . 
It is true that to believe in my revelations I asked 
leave of neither bishop, priest, nor any one else. . . . 
As firmly as I believe our Saviour Jesus Christ suf- 
fered death to redeem us from the pains of hell, so 
firmly do I believe that it was St. Michael and St. 
Gabriel, St. Catherine and St. Margaret whom our 
Saviour sent to comfort and to console me. ... I 
shall call them to my aid as long as I live." 

And when she repeated her touching prayer for 
help, even that court must have been hushed to rev- 
erence. 

" I say, * Most sweet Lord, in honor of Thy Holy 
Passion I beseech Thee, if Thou lovest me, that 
Thou wilt reveal to me how I should answer these 
clergy. I know it well, as regards this dress, the com- 
mand by which I have taken it, but I do not know in 
what way I should leave it off; for this, may it please 



THE ARTICLES 319 

Thee to teach me.' And soon they come to me. . . . 
It is not without need that I beseech God. I would 
He might send me yet more, so that it might be dis- 
cerned that I am come from God, and that it is He 
Who hath sent me." Turning to Cauchon, she said : 
"I often by my Voices have news of my Lord of Beau- 
vais." 

" What do your Voices say of us .? " 

" I will tell you apart." 

To the charge of heresy, she answered that she 
had always, so far as lay in her power, upheld the 
church. In regard to her submission : " Send me the 
clerk on Saturday next, and I will answer." 

On Saturday, when Cauchon and a few trusted 
friends visited the prison, she declared she could 
never repudiate the authority of her Voices. "What 
God hath made me do, hath commanded or shall 
command, I will not fail to do for any man alive. ..." 
She would obey the church militant, she said, " God 
being first served," and that they had to take for her 
final answer. 

She spent Easter Day in the company of John 
Gray's varlets. Chained, in that house of hate, she 
heard the bells, whose voice she had been so eager 
to obey, calling on all the world to rejoice in the 
Resurrection of her Lord. 

For the first three days in Easter week, Cauchon 
and a few picked men busied themselves in reducing 



320 JEANNE D'ARC 

d'Estivet's seventy articles and the substance of her 
replies to twelve articles, which were to be submitted 
to the judgment of sundry learned doctors. The 
statement was truth, literally, but so presented as 
to convey the least favorable impression. Cauchon 
had found it wiser to bend a little to his court, which, 
weak as it was, would not swear to manifest absurd- 
ity; and even these twelve articles were never ap- 
proved by a majority of the assessors. On April 12, 
he had his men whipped into line; absentees were to 
be deprived of their rations for a week. Many would 
have slipped away ; Richard Grouchet, Pierre Minier 
and Jean Pigache had thought of flight, but stayed 
perforce, and gave their opinion only under terror. 
*' All was violence in this affair," said Grouchet. But 
the best vote Cauchon could get meant further delay : 
the articles should be explained to the prisoner, who 
should be admonished to submit, and then the docu- 
ments sent for judgment to the University of Paris, 
where, in fact, on April 19, they were carried by a 
few chosen messengers. 

On the eighteenth, Cauchon, with seven of his 
men, visited the prisoner, to " exhort her charitably, 
to admonish her gently, and to cause her to be gently 
admonished ... in order to lead her back into the 
way of truth and to a sincere profession of our faith. 
. . . We, the bishop, did begin to speak to Jeanne, 
who declared herself ill." 



THE ARTICLES 321 

And, in truth, her splendid young strength had at 
length broken under its burden. She had been ill 
with nausea and fever, and Warwick and Beaufort 
had sent for several of the medical men who were 
among the assessors. 

" Do your best for her," Warwick told them, "for 
my king would on no account have her die a natural 
death. He bought her dear, and holds her dear, and 
she shall die by the law and be burned." 

D'Estivet took the doctors to the prison, where, 
weak and in chains, she lay on her bed. 

" I have eaten some carp sent me by the Bishop of 
Beauvais," she told them, " and doubt not that this is 
the cause of my illness." 

"Worthless creature!" shouted d'Estivet. "Thou 
hast been eating sprats and other unwholesomeness." 

"I have not," cried Jeanne, and then and there sum- 
moned strength to have it out with her adversary. 

The doctors felt her pulse and found some fever — 
carp and sprats were not needed to account for that 
— and reported to Warwick that she should be bled. 

"Away with your bleeding ! " said he. " She is art- 
ful, and might kill herself." 

They did, however, bleed her, and she grew better ; 
but another altercation with d'Estivet brought a re- 
turn of the fever, whereupon Warwick forbade the 
promoter to molest her. Henry of England should 
not lose his prey for the spite of Cauchon's underling. 



322 JEANNE D'ARC 

Nor were the exhortations of the bishop and 
his companions likely to renew her strength ; but 
Cauchon prosed on with his charitable admonition. 
" We have come to bring you consolation and com- 
fort in your suffering," he assured her. "Wise and 
learned men have scrutinized your answers concern- 
ing the faith, which have seemed to them perilous. 
But you are only a poor and illiterate woman, and we 
come to offer you learned and wise men, watchful 
and honest, who will give you, as is their duty, the 
knowledge which you have not. Take heed to our 
words, for if you be obstinate, consulting only your own 
unschooled brain, we must abandon you. You see to 
what peril you expose yourself, and it is this we would 
avoid for you with all the power of our affection." 

" I thank you for what you say to me for my salva- 
tion," the sick girl wearily answered. " It seems to 
me, seeing how ill I am, that I am in great danger 
of death. If it be that God do His pleasure on me, 
I ask of you that I may have confession and my 
Saviour also, and that I may be put in holy ground." 

She set the weapon in their hand. 

" If you will have the Sacraments of the church, 
you must submit to the church ; otherwise you can 
have only the Sacrament of penance, which we are 
always ready to give to you." 

"I have for the moment nothing else to say to 
you," was her only answer. 



THE ARTICLES 323 

They again plied her with questions as to her reve- 
lations, and asked suddenly : 

** Do you believe that the Holy Scriptures have 
been revealed by God ? " 

"You know it well ; I know it well." 

From the depth of their affection, they admonished 
her long, heavily citing chapter and verse in her 
weary ears. If she would not submit to the church, 
they must abandon her as a " Saracen." 

" I am a good Christian ; I have been baptized ; I 
shall die a good Christian. I love God ; I serve Him. 
I wish to help and maintain the church with all my 
power." 

And that being all they could get from their here- 
tic, they left her to the tender care of her jailers. 

On May 2, Cauchon gave the fine spectacle of a 
public admonition. His assessors were now well in 
hand, and sixty-three of them attended him in the 
ornament room of the castle. He summed up his 
trial ; he informed the court that in spite of the dili- 
gence and gentleness of many wise doctors, "the 
cunning of the devil has continued to prevail, and 
their efforts have produced nothing." It seemed 
good, therefore, that the woman should be admonished 
before them all ; and Maitre Jean de Chatillon, the 
lord Archdeacon of Evreux, was invited to " persuade 
her to leave the criminal path where she now is and 
return again to that of truth." 



324 JEANNE D'ARC 

Jeanne was produced in court, and in answer to his 
wordy preamble, bade her admonisher come to the 
point. 

" Read your book, then I will answer. I rely upon 
God, my Creator, for everything. I love Him with all 
my heart." 

" Have you anything more to say to the general 
monition ? " 

" I rely on my Judge : He is the King of Heaven." 

To Maitre Jean's specific exhortations, couched in 
six articles, touching upon her submission to the 
church, her dress, her visions, and revelations, she 
gave her old answers. 

" I will say no more to you," she flashed out, when 
they urged her further, and threatened her with the 
sentence of a heretic. *'And if I saw the fire, I 
should say all that I am saying to you, and naught 
else." 

" Superba responsio,'* wrote Manchon on the margin 
of his register. 

Cauchon had gained his point of presenting the 
prisoner as an obstinate heretic to the men of his 
court, who could not now fail to condemn her. It 
remained for him to show her as a self-confessed 
sorceress or impostor, and his next "charitable ad- 
monition " was to be held in the torture chamber. 
But with rack and screws under her eyes and the exe- 
cutioner ready for his work, she cried : 



THE ARTICLES 325 

''Truly, if you were to tear me limb from limb, 
and separate soul from body, I will tell you nothing 
more ; and if I were to say anything else, I should 
always declare that you dragged it from me by 
force." 

A few days before, she told them, she had asked 
her Voices if, hard pressed as she was, she should 
submit to the church. 

" If you would have God come to your aid, wait on 
Him for all your doings," was their answer. 

" Shall I burn > " she had asked. 

"Wait on our Lord. He will help you." 

" I know that our Lord has always been Master of 
all my doings," was her last word, "and that the 
devil has never had power over them." 

Torture was spared that day, as being likely to 
profit her little, "considering the hardness of her 
heart," and with its anticipation before her, she was 
returned to her cell. The executioner testified that 
she answered with such discretion that all marvelled. 

On May 12, Cauchon put the question of torture 
to a chosen company of fourteen assessors. Cour- 
celles and one Aubert Morel voted yes; the spy 
Loiselleur held it " a salutary medicine for her soul," 
but deferred to the majority, who were in favor of 
mercy. 

A week later Cauchon convoked his court to hear 
the result of the wise men's deliberations on the 



326 JEANNE D'ARC 

twelve articles, and the judgment of the University 
of Paris. He had taken good care to ignore any gen- 
tle opinions ; and the University, ** ardently inflamed 
with zeal," spoke with no uncertain voice : "Jeanne's 
visions were either her own invention or manifesta- 
tions of Satan, Belial and Behemoth. She was, more- 
over, boastful, foolish, treacherous, deceitful, cruel, 
bloodthirsty, seditious, blasphemous, undutiful, rash, 
a fatalist, uncharitable, idolatrous, schismatical, apos- 
tate, a heretic. She lies when she says she was sent 
by God, for she shows no miracle or testimony of 
Scripture." And at the end Cauchon received his due : 
"May the great Shepherd, when He shall appear, 
deign to reward your shepherdlike care with an im- 
mortal crown of glory." 

The majority of the assessors had, with growing 
reluctance, given their timid assent to condemna- 
tion ; now the court advised that again she be 
"charitably admonished and warned" before Sen- 
tence was pronounced, — advice that fitted in with 
Cauchon's scheme to obtain her recantation. They 
had not yet broken that indomitable spirit with their 
charity, which for more than a week had left the girl 
in her chains, at the mercy of her brutal guards, and 
in hourly expectation of torture or death. 

The twenty-third of May saw the final session of 
the court, and a few assessors gathered in a room 
near the cell, to hear Maitre Pierre Maurice, canon 



THE ARTICLES 327 

of Rouen, deliver their admonition to the prisoner. 
In words well calculated to appeal to her chivalrous 
spirit, he besought her to prefer before all worldly 
glory, " the honor of God," the salvation of her body 
and soul, and to submit her will to the authority of 
the church. " If your king had given you a town to 
guard, would you not refuse to receive anyone with- 
out letter or sign from your lord } " So the church 
had forbidden her and them to receive those who 
came without authority, having "for the support of 
their mission only their own sayings." " If when you 
were in your king's realm, a soldier or any other un- 
der his dominion had suddenly risen and said, ' I will 
not obey the king. I will not submit either to him or 
his officers,' would not you yourself have said that 
such a one should be condemned .^ ... In the name 
of your devotion to the Passion of your Creator, I 
beseech you, return into the way of truth, obey the 
church, submit to her judgment and decision." 

The girl listened dutifully ; Pierre Maurice had 
used challenging words, which perhaps were to meet 
some response in the heart which had never failed in 
service and obedience to the highest it knew. But 
now her answer rang out clear and undaunted : 

** What I have always said in the trial, and held, I 
wish still to say and maintain. If I were condemned, 
if I saw the torch lighted, the faggots prepared, and the 
executioner ready to kindle the fire, and if I myself 



328 JEANNE D'ARC 

were in the fire, I would not say otherwise, and would 
maintain to the death all I have said." 

And again Manchon wrote on his margin : " Re- 
sponsio Johannae superb a.'' 

" Have you anything further to say ? " Cauchon 
asked promoter and prisoner. 

** No," was the reply, and he declared the trial con- 
cluded. 

" We summon you both tomorrow to hear the law 
which will be laid down by us, and the sentence 
which shall be pronounced by us, to be afterward 
carried out and proceeded with according to law and 
right." 



XXVI 

RECANTATION 

ON Thursday, May 24, Cauchon made a final 
effort to bring his heretic back to the fold. 
Early that morning, Maitre Jean Beaup^re, 
who thought then and held later that her apparitions 
rose more from "natural causes and human intent 
than from anything supernatural," repaired to her 
cell. 

" You will soon be led to the scaffold to be preached 
to," he told her. " If you are a good Christian, you 
will say there that you place all your deeds and words 
in the ordering of our Holy Mother Church, and 
especially of the ecclesiastical judges." She seemed 
to him in a tractable frame of mind ; that she said 
she would submit, as he understood, is extremely 
doubtful. 

Yet, as she lay in her chains that night, the mem- 
ory of Pierre Maurice's words may have come back 
to weaken her resistance. Though she might show 
the wisdom of forty lawyers, she was but a girl of 
nineteen, sensitive, high-strung, responsive to the 
beauty of human kindness and celestial vision, whose 
countenance was wont "to breathe out gladness," 



330 JEANNE D'ARC 

whose tears were now, indeed, "abundant." Worn 
with illness and imprisonment, shaken, perhaps, in 
her confidence of rightly understanding her heavenly- 
messengers, the thought may have come that, after 
all, she would do wrong, as a faithful Christian, not 
to submit to the church, even in the persons of such 
men as Cauchon and Beaupere, "God being first 
served." 

At the moment when she was to set out for the 
place of her sentence and execution, Nicolas Loisel- 
leur appeared, with his false persuasion: "Jeanne, 
believe me, if you will you may be saved. Take the 
dress of your sex, and do all that you are told : other- 
wise you are in peril of death. But if you do what I 
tell you, you will be saved, and have much good and 
little ill, and you will be given over to the church." 

To be saved from peril of death, to have much 
good and little ill, to be given over to the church, — 
these words were ringing in her ears as she mounted 
the tumbril of the condemned. To be given over to 
the church meant woman's tendance in the church's 
prison, and no return to the boorish guardianship she 
loathed. 

Sentence was to be pronounced in the open space 
by the cemetery of St. Ouen, where the abbey church 
lifts its great tower whose galleried height is called 
the "crown of Normandy." As she passed through 
the crowded streets, her weakened body must have 



RECANTATION 331 

been overborne by the unaccustomed flooding light, 
by the clamor, by the throngs whose curiosity seemed 
all unfriendly. But two years had pasesd since she 
rode with Dunois through Orleans, where she was 
welcomed as "if God Himself had descended there," 
and had told the people that ** they were good Chris- 
tians, and God would save them." 

" Grant that she may go forth to finish unhurt that 
which remains for her to accomplish," prayed the 
people of Dauphiny. 

By the beautiful south fagade of the church, near 
the sculptured " portal of the marmosets," two scaf- 
folds had been erected. One was crowded with 
churchmen, — the lord Cardinal of England, my lord 
Bishop of Therouenne, whose brother Jean de Lux- 
embourg counted his blood money, the Maid's royal 
ransom ; bishops, English and French, were there, 
abbots of the great Norman monasteries, Warwick 
and Stafford and other lords and captains. English 
soldiers, burghers, priests, wayfarers, crowded the 
place, where on the festival of the abbey patron a 
great fair was held. Jeanne, in her boy's suit of black, 
mounted the second scaffold, where Maitre Guillaume 
Erard, a valued friend of Machet, confessor of King 
Charles, waited to preach his sermon. 

" I wish I were in Flanders ! This business is little 
to my liking," he had confided to a young priest ; but 
such reluctance was no stay to his zeal, and with the 



332 JEANNE D'ARC 

text, "The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except 
it abide in the vine," he admonished her well for her 
sins, and then turned his attention to her master, 
Charles of Valois. " Ah, France ! thou art much 
abused ; thou hast always been the most Christian 
country, and Charles, who calls himself thy king and 
governor, hath joined himself, as a heretic and schis- 
matic, which he is, to the words and deeds of a 
worthless woman, defamed and full of dishonor ; and 
not only he, but all the clergy within his jurisdiction 
and lordship by whom she hath been examined and 
not reproved, as she hath said." Now, at last, all the 
culprits were summoned to the bar : Charles and his 
court of appeal at Poitiers were to take their judg- 
ment with her. In the full tide of eloquence, Erard, 
pointing at the prisoner, cried : " It is to thee, 
Jeanne, that I speak. I tell thee that thy king is a 
heretic and schismatic." 

" By my faith, sir," came the answer straight, 
"saving your reverence, I dare say and swear, on 
pain of death, that he is the most noble of all Chris- 
tians, and the one who most loves the faith of the 
church, and he is not what you say." 

" Silence her ! " cried Erard. But she had spoken. 

Here was her last word on Charles of Valois ; and 
many years after he was to hear that message on the 
lips of Massieu, in the tribunal which the church 
should call to wipe out the shame of Cauchon's trial. 



RECANTATION 333 

At the end of the exhortation, Jeanne said : 

" I will answer you. As to my submission to the 
church, I have answered the clergy on this point." 
And again she appealed to the Pope, " to whom, after 
God, I refer me as to my words and deeds. I did 
them by God's order. I charge no one with them, 
neither my king, nor any one else. If there be any 
fault in them, the blame is on me, and no one else." 

Her loyalty had taken alarm at Erard's attack ; and 
Charles and his craven crew must have felt their 
hearts turn to water, when, in that later year, they 
heard this declaration from the grave their cowardice 
had dug. 

*' Will you revoke all your words and deeds which 
are disapproved by the clergy?" the priests asked 
her. 

" I refer me to God and to our Holy Father the 
Pope," she said again. Twenty-five years later Isa- 
beau Rom^e and her sons bore that appeal to the 
Pope ; and in the cathedral at Paris, weeping, in the 
presence of a great multitude clamorous with sym- 
pathy, she recited her daughter's wrongs ; and the 
testimony of nearly one hundred and fifty of those 
who had known the Maid in life — old neighbors of 
Domremy, comrades at arms, women who had loved 
her, priests who had shrived her, even some of the 
judges who had condemned her — made tardy repa- 
ration, and vindicated her honor and her faith. And 



334 JEANNE D'ARC 

today, in the ruin where her prison was, the cities of 
France have hung their banners bearing the words 
" Honor," "Honor and Reparation." 

But on the scaffold at St. Ouen she was told that 
the Pope was too far off ; she must submit to Cau- 
chon ; and she would say no more. 

Two sentences had been prepared, — one in case 
she was obdurate, the other if she should recant ; and 
Cauchon now began to read the condemnation : 

" In the name of the Lord, Amen. All the pas- 
tors of the church, who have it in their hearts to 
watch faithfully — " 

As he read slowly on, the clerks and priests about 
Jeanne were making their last appeal. Loiselleur was 
at her elbow with his "Submit! Submit!" Erard 
bade Massieu read her the schedule of recantation 
and urge her to sign. 

"Jeanne, do as you are told. Do you want to make 
us kill you .?" they besought her. " You may be saved 
if you will. Change your dress, and do as you are 
bidden ; otherwise you will be put to death." 

" Let the churchmen see the paper," said the girl. 
" If they tell me to sign it, I will." But this was no 
time for delay. The tumult in the square increased ; 
stones were thrown. Down there below the execu- 
tioner waited. 

" Sign it now : otherwise you will end in the fire to- 
day," urged Erard. 



RECANTATION 335 

" I would rather sign than burn," she said. 

"... having before our eyes Christ and the honor 
of the orthodox faith," the unctuous voice of Cauchon 
droned on, " so that our judgment may emanate even 
from the face of our Lord, we, the judges, say and 
decree: that thou, Jeanne, hast deeply sinned — " 

"I submit to the judgment of the church," she 
cried ; and clasping her hands, she called on St. 
Michael for counsel. 

Massieu thrust the abjuration before her. 

" You take great pains to persuade me," said she 
with a smile, and put her mark to the writing. 

Bystanders said that the paper bore only five or 
six lines, no more than the length of a Pater Noster ; 
yet the abjuration which appears in the documents 
is an exhaustive revocation of all the truth that she 
had sworn to in her trial. Some say the paper was 
folded, and only a part read to her, others that Cauchon 
forged a longer one ; in either case she probably 
thought she was making a general submission to the 
church, a promise, perhaps, to resume her woman's 
dress in the church prison where it was her right 
to go. 

Cauchon turned to the sentence held in reserve 
for the repentant sinner. Matters were going to his 
taste : his court had judged her guilty, she had pub- 
licly forsworn herself ; it remained only to produce 
the third act of his drama, the burning of a heretic 



336 JEANNE D'ARC 

relapsed. He had his plan for that ; but the good 
man was misjudged by his English masters, who 
thought they saw their prey slipping from them. 

"The king is ill served, since Jeanne escapes," 
growled Warwick. 

" Take no heed to it, my lord," was Cauchon's as- 
surance. " We shall soon have her again." 

But many were caUing out that it was a trick. 
Englishmen had never trusted these French judges 
too well, and there were cries of " Traitors," " Ar- 
magnacs," and stones were hurled. 

" You shall pay me for this," Cauchon was heard 
shouting in answer to some taunt, and throwing down 
his papers, he declared he would do no more, he had 
been acting only with his conscience. 

" This recantation is a farce," Cardinal Beaufort's 
chaplain said. ** You favor her over much." 

" You lie," returned my Lord of Beauvais, all in 
arms for his fair honor. " In such case I would show 
favor to no one; but as a judge I must seek the sal- 
vation rather than the death of this Jeanne," and he 
turned to Beaufort for confirmation. 

" You must receive her to penitence," agreed his 
most reverend lordship, and bade the chaplain be 
silent. 

In the midst of the hubbub, Cauchon read his sen- 
tence : in view of the revocation of errors, because 
" having publicly cast them from thee, thou hast ab- 



RECANTATION 337 

jured them by the words of thy mouth, together with 
the heresy with which thou wast charged ... we 
declare thee set free from the bonds of excommuni- 
cation which held thee enchained. . . . But because 
thou hast sinned rashly against God and Holy Church, 
we condemn thee . . . for salutary penance, saving 
our grace and moderation, to perpetual imprison- 
ment, with the bread of sorrow and the water of 
affliction." 

" Jeanne, you have done a good day's work, if it 
please God, and have saved your soul," came the 
wheedling tone of Loiselleur in her ear. 

" Bread of sorrow and water of affliction ! " What 
matter, so she need eat and drink no more in com- 
pany with Warwick's varlets ? 

** Now, you churchmen," cried she, with the old 
confident note of Poitiers, " take me to your prisons 
that I may no longer be in the hands of the Eng- 
lish." 

" Lead her back whence she was brought," shouted 
Cauchon ; and hustled and insulted by the soldiers, 
she climbed the cart and was returned to her cell, 
and her chains, and the tender care of John Gray's 
men. 

That afternoon, Jean le Maltre, and others, visited 
the prison, to set forth to her how God and his clergy 
had on this day shown her mercy and grace. Yet, should 
she return to her errors and inventions, they gave 



338 JEANNE D'ARC 

warning that the church must abandon her altogether. 
They bade her take off her man's dress, and put on 
woman's garments. Heavily she agreed to all, and 
when the Duchess of Bedford sent a tailor with the 
dress, she donned it without question and allowed her 
head to be shaved and coiffed; but when the man 
touched her rudely, she struck him in the face. 

Chained as before, abandoned by the priests, for 
all she knew, to worse than death, she drained the 
dregs of suffering. She had looked for the protection 
of the church and had hoped for the ministration of 
its beloved offices; she found herself in the hell her 
enemies had lighted for her, and, keenest pang of all, 
she knew she had sinned. Wittingly or not, she now 
saw that she had denied the highest, and earth and 
heaven were as brass to her misery. 

On Sunday, the rumor spread through the city 
that she had resumed her man's dress, and Cauchon 
directed Beaupere, Nicolas Midi, and a few others, to 
visit the prison. But they had neglected to provide 
themselves with a key, and while they waited for 
the guard, they were beset by some soldiers in the 
courtyard. 

" What do they say } " asked Beaupere, who under- 
stood no English. 

" That he would do well who threw us into the 
Seine," rejoined Midi. 

The fun grew, and with cries of "Armagnacs," 



RECANTATION 339 

"traitors," "false counsellors," the English ended 
their game of baiting the priests by putting them to 
flight with battle-axe and drawn sword. 

On Monday, the twenty-eighth, judges and asses- 
sors visited the prison in force. They found Jeanne 
in her boy's dress again, so overborne with grief, her 
face so disfigured and tear-stained, that the heart of 
Brother Isambard de la Pierre, at least, was moved 
to compassion. 

" If you, my lords of the church, had placed me 
and kept me in your prisons, perchance I should not 
have been in this way," was her greeting. 

Asked why she had resumed her man's dress, she 
answered : 

" It is more lawful and suitable for me to wear it, 
being with men, than to have a woman's dress. I 
have resumed it because the promise to me has not 
been kept ; that is to say, that I should go to mass, 
and should receive my Saviour, and that I should be 
taken out of irons." 

"Did you not abjure, and promise not to resume 
this dress V 

" I would rather die than be in irons. But if I am 
allowed to go to mass and am taken out of irons and 
put in a gracious prison, where I shall have a woman 
for companion, I will be good, and do as the church 
wills." 

" Since last Thursday, have you heard your Voices.^'* 



340 JEANNE D'ARC 

"Yes." 

**What did they say to you ? " 

Then came the whole story, and Manchon set in 
his margin : " Responsio mortifera" 

**They said to me that God had sent me word by 
St. Catherine and St. Margaret of the great pity it 
is, this treason to which I have consented, to abjure 
and recant in order to save my life. I have damned 
myself to save my life. Before last Thursday, my 
Voices did indeed tell me what I should do and what 
I did on that day. When I was on the scaffold on 
Thursday, my Voices said to me, while the preacher 
was speaking: * Answer him boldly, this preacher.' 
And in truth he is a false preacher; he reproached 
me with many things I never did. If I said that God 
had not sent me, I should damn myself, for it is true 
that God has sent me. My Voices have said to me 
since Thursday : * Thou hast done a great evil in de- 
claring that what thou hast done was wrong.' All I 
said and revoked, I said for fear of the fire." 

" Do you beheve that your Voices are St. Cather- 
ine and St. Margaret 1 " 

** Yes, I believe it, and that they come from God." 
And again she cried : " I would rather do penance 
once for all — that is, die — than endure any longer 
the suffering of a prison. I have done nothing against 
God or the faith, in spite of all they have made me 
revoke. What was in the schedule of abjuration I 



RECANTATION 341 

did not understand. I did not intend to revoke any- 
thing except according to God's good pleasure. If the 
judges wish, I will resume a woman's dress ; for the 
rest, I can do no more." 

Stories about the man's dress vary ; it must have 
been left where she could get it ; her guards could 
have prevented her taking it if they wished. Mas- 
sieu said they took away the woman's garments, and 
emptied her old page's suit from a sack, bidding her 
get up and put it on. She demurred: "Sirs, you 
know it is forbidden me," yet no doubt was glad of 
its protection, and took it " willingly," as she told 
the assessors. All of which fell out as Cauchon had 
planned. 

As the priests came out of the prison that day, 
they met Warwick and a company of English. 

" Farewell ! farewell ! " cried Cauchon, who was 
proud of his English, and added in his mother tongue : 
**It is done ! Be of good cheer." 

On Tuesday, Cauchon assembled his assessors in 
the archbishop's palace to tell them that the heretic 
was relapsed, and to ask their opinion. For the men 
who had condemned her before, but one answer was 
possible : to "declare her a heretic and abandon her 
to the secular authority, praying this authority to 
deal gently with her." The church did not shed blood ; 
but the secular arm knew its business in such case, 
and its gentle dealing meant death by fire. Then 



342 JEANNE D'ARC 

a mandate was drawn, citing " the said Jeanne to ap- 
pear before us in person tomorrow, at the hour of 
eight in the morning at Rouen at the place called the 
Old Market, in order that she may be declared by us 
relapsed, excommunicate and heretic, with the inti- 
mation that it should be done to her as is customary 
in such cases." 



XXVII 

VICTORY 

ON Wednesday, May 30, Cauchon sent Maitre 
Pierre Maurice, with the spy Loiselleur, very 
early in the morning, to exhort the heretic 
to save her soul by repudiating the reality and holi- 
ness of her visions. This was a nice point for the 
perfect ending of his case. She had been judged witch 
and heretic on her testimony, she had recanted, she 
had relapsed ; death by fire was certain. That she 
should die denying the sacred spring of all her deeds 
would be the final justification of his wisdom. 

"Ah, Maitre Pierre, where shall I be this even- 
ing } " was her greeting to Maurice. 

" Have you not good hope in God .'' " 

" I have, and God willing, I shall be in paradise." 

Maurice began his exhortation. 

" Now, Jeanne, tell me, what is this angel, who, 
you say, brought a crown to the king .'' " 

" I myself was that angel. It is I who promised 
that if he would set me to work, he should be crowned 
at Reims." 

"And these angels that you saw.?" 

" They did really appear to me in the form of very 



344 JEANNE D'ARC 

minute things — be they good or be they evil spirits 
— they did appear to me. And my Voices I hear 
especially at matins, when the bells ring, or at com- 
pline." 

" Often when the bells ring, one seems to catch 
the sound of human voices," said Maurice. 

" I do really hear my Voices." 

"They must be evil spirits, for they promised you 
deliverance, and have deceived you." 

" It is true ; I have been deceived," she said. She 
had indeed misunderstood, and the priests twisted 
her answers into acknowledgment that the Voices 
were evil. 

Two Dominicans, Ladvenu and Toutmouill6, came 
in, and added their eloquence to the flood of exhorta- 
tion. They pictured the stake, the flames, the death 
she should meet that day. She had known, and yet, 
perhaps, had seen her "great victory" with steel 
clashing in Rouen streets, and the old battle cry: 
" Ayez bon courage ! lis song tous nostres ! Us song 
nostres !*' and spurs and whip for the twenty miles 
to Louviers, with Dunois and her beau due and La 
Hire. 

"By a great victory shalt thou be delivered. Have 
no care for thy martyrdom ; thou wilt come in the 
end to the kingdom of paradise." So had her Voices 
spoken, "simply, absolutely, without fail." 

"By a great victory ! " But now she could see only 



VICTORY 345 

the flames of her martyrdom, and every fibre of her 
sane body quivered at this outrage of its youth. 

" Alas ! " she cried. " Am I to be so horribly and 
cruelly treated ? Alas ! that my body, whole and en- 
tire, which has never been corrupted, should today 
be consumed and burned to ashes ! I would rather 
far that my head were cut off, seven times over, than 
to be thus burned." Then she turned on the church- 
men, with her terrible indictment : " Had I been in 
the prisons of the church to which I siibmitted my- 
self, and guarded by the clergy instead of by my 
enemies, it would not have fallen out so unhappily 
for me. I appeal to God, the great Judge, for the 
evil and injustice done to me ! " 

At the moment, Cauchon, with Courcelles and 
others of his hirelings, entered the cell, and she 
faced her executioner. 

" Bishop, I die through you." 

"Ah, Jeanne, have patience," — patience, with the 
fires kindling ! " You die because you have not kept 
to what you promised us, and for having returned to 
your first evil doing." 

" If you had put me in the prisons of the church, 
this would not have happened," she repeated. "For 
this I summon you before God." 

And then each tried his hand at breaking her reso- 
lution. 

"Now, then, Jeanne," said Cauchon, "you always 



346 JEANNE D'ARC 

told me that your Voices assured you of deliverance. 
You can certainly see they are only evil spirits and 
not from God. If they had been, they would not thus 
have lied." 

Loiselleur declared she ought to confess publicly 
that she had been deceived and had deceived others, 
and to ask pardon of the people. 

" I fear I shall not be able to remember that when 
the proper moment comes," she said. And the spy 
testified that she begged her confessor to remind her 
of this and of all else which might tend to her salva- 
tion, wherefrom he concluded that she was then of 
sound mind. " Then, and after her sentence," he said, 
" with much contrition of heart, she asked pardon of 
the English and Burgundians for having caused to 
be slain, beaten and damned a great number of 
them." Back there at Patay, she had wept that Eng- 
Hshmen should go unshriven to their account, and 
had eased the passing of one dying man with her 
compassion and tears. 

The priests reported her answers to suit their 
scheme : she saw visions, but they deceived her, and 
whether they were good or evil she left to the judg- 
ment of the church. Manchon, who was not present, 
refused to sign their testimony. She said, no doubt, 
that she saw her visions, that she had misunderstood 
their message, and at another moment, perhaps, that 
she relied on the church. 



VICTORY 347 

It was in the plan that she should be permitted to 
receive the Sacraments, her dearest hope for so many 
months, so that all the world might infer that she 
had again renounced her error, and Brother Martin 
Ladvenu was appointed to hear her confession. 

After the Sacraments of confession and penance, 
Ladvenu sent Massieu to Cauchon, to ask if the 
Eucharist might be given her ; and the Host was 
borne to the prison with due solemnity and many 
candles, and chanting of litany and intercession, 
" Orate pro eUy orate pro ea^^ that Rouen might know 
that Jeanne, self-styled the Maid, had again repudi- 
ated her inventions. But the sacred vessels were de- 
livered to the priest in such slovenly manner that he 
indignantly demanded stole and candles before per- 
forming his office. She received the Sacrament "with 
such devotion and tears as I cannot describe," said 
Ladvenu. 

At about nine o'clock, she mounted the tumbril 
which should bear her to the Old Market, a square 
not far from the river. She wore a long black robe 
and a woman's coif ; Massieu and Ladvenu rode with 
her, and several scores of English soldiers, armed 
with battle-axes and swords, formed the guard. 

The story goes that Loiselleur jumped on the cart 
as it was moving, and begged her forgiveness, weep- 
ing bitterly, and that the guards drove him off and 
would have slain him later if Warwick had not inter- 



348 JEANNE D'ARC 

fered. That may have been part of the legend which 
grew up at Rouen after her death, when those who 
had part in it were pointed out with hatred, and men 
said that all who were so guilty came to some shame- 
ful end. And an Englishman who had sworn to give 
a faggot to her burning was stricken down as he saw 
a dove ascending from the flames and the name yesus 
written there, and was borne off by his companions to 
a neighboring tavern. Another Englishman had de- 
clared her soul was in the hands of God ; and Canon 
Alepee, an assessor, was heard to say : " God grant 
that my soul may be where the soul of that woman 
is." Manchon was so disturbed that he was terrified 
for a month, and bought a missal with his clerk's pay 
that he might pray for her soul. And that same 
afternoon the executioner had come to the Domini- 
can convent, and told Brother Martin Ladvenu that 
he feared much he should be damned for he had 
burned a saint ; never had he been so afraid at any 
burning. He had cast her ashes into the Seine, but 
her heart — that great heart that had held all France 
— would not burn. And forthwith he made his con- 
fession ; he had erred and repented of what he had 
done, for he held her to be a good woman. 

Three scaffolds had been erected in the Old Mar- 
ket Place : one for the lords, lay and clerical ; one for 
the accused and her preacher — for she must hear 
yet another exhortation ; one built high that all might 



VICTORY 349 

see, with the stake for her burning. The executioner 
said this was cruelly done, and placed her beyond his 
reach so that he could not shorten her suffering, as 
was the custom. Upon the pyre was a great placard, 
bearing the inscription : " Jeanne, self-styled the 
Maid, liar, mischief-maker, deceiver of the people, 
diviner, superstitious, blasphemer of God, presump- 
tuous, false to the faith of Christ, boaster, idolater, 
cruel, dissolute, invoker of devils, apostate, schismatic, 
heretic." 

Nicolas Midi preached the sermon that day from 
the text : " If one member suffer, all the members 
suffer with it." 

The square was filled to suffocation, windows, bal- 
conies, roofs, were crowded, the great lords in steel 
and scarlet, the prelates in rich robes, pushed and 
jostled on their scaffold. Jeanne sat quietly through 
the sermon, gazing out over the throng to the pure 
and lovely line of low hill in the street's vista, look- 
ing her last on the France for which she died. Cau- 
chon read his sentence, and recommended her to the 
counsel of Martin Ladvenu and Isambard de la 
Pierre, who attended her. Then, weeping, the Maid 
knelt in her last supplication. She invoked her saints 
and all the company of heaven to aid her, " with de- 
votion, lamentation, and true confession of faith. 
Very humbly, she begged forgiveness of all men, 
whether of her party or the other, asking their 



350 JEANNE D'ARC 

prayers and pardoning the evil they had done her." 
She begged the priests each to say a mass for her 
soul, and again she declared that for what she had 
done, good or bad, she alone was to answer. 

Many wept with her, Beaufort and Louis de Lux- 
embourg were greatly moved, Cauchon shed tears, — 
he had good cause to weep. English soldiers, here 
and there, laughed, others shouted that time was 
passing. " How now, priests, would you have us dine 
here ? " The crowd surged back and forth, hustling 
the guards about the scaffold. Without formal sen- 
tence, the bailiff hurriedly waved his hand to the ex- 
ecutioner, with the words, " Do thy duty." A paper 
mitre with the words, ** Heretic, Relapsed, Apostate, 
Idolater," was set on her head, and two sergeants of 
the king gave her over to the executioner. Ladvenu 
and La Pierre never left her ; to the end Massieu 
stood at the foot of the scaffold. 

She climbed the height to her last battleground, 
with no more thought of fear than in the warfare of 
other days. " Aye^ bon courage ! sus ! sus ! " But 
this foe she met alone. As she faced the city, she 
sighed : 

" Ah, Rouen ! I have great fear that you shall 
suffer for my death." 

She asked for a Cross, and an Englishman broke a 
stick and fashioned one which she kissed devoutly 
and slipped into her bosom next her heart. They 



VICTORY 351 

fetched a Crucifix from the neighboring church, 
and she embraced it ** close and long " until she was 
fastened to the stake. 

" Hold it on high before me until the moment of 
death, that the Cross on which God is hanging may 
be continually before my eyes." 

Cauchon and one of his men came to the foot of 
the scaffold, and once more the terrible indictment 
rang out : 

" Bishop, I die by you ! " 

If he had hoped, in her extremity, to hear an ar- 
raignment of king, or lord, or priest, he got his de- 
sert; she had for him only the just sentence of his 
own damnation. 

As the executioner set the faggots alight, she cried 
once for " Water, holy water ! " and as the flames as- 
cended, she bade Brother Isambard, who always bore 
aloft the Cross before her eyes, to leave her lest he 
come to harm. She called on St. Michael and her 
saints. " My Voices, my Voices, they have never de- 
ceived me." Through the gate of fire she saw the 
paradise they had never ceased to promise. As the 
flames wrapped her from the world, she cried upon 
the Holy Name of Jesus, and again as her head 
drooped to her breast, and once more, with a loud 
voice: "Jesus." "By a great victory " had she been 
delivered. 



CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
U . S . A 



I-IARrr]\/[T 11^ SOME PAGES FROM THE 
n/AfXlLlVlLillV LIFE OF TURKISH WOMEN 

By DEMETRA VAKA 



" A remarkable description of the life and manner 
of thinking of Turkish women. The author offers 
wholly new pictures of Turkish home life, and presents 
fairly the Turkish woman's views of polygamy, of 
subjection to man, and of religious duty." 

New York Sun. 

"A striking story. . . . Presents an illuminating 
picture of harem life. . . . Decidedly a book that is 
worth reading." — Brooklyn Eagle, 

" Every chapter is a revelation to the American 
reader. The refreshing stimulus of conditions alto- 
gether new permeates the book, and the variety of 
experience and of personalities, the delights and the 
discomforts, the romance and the tedium, the happi- 
ness and the griefs, combine to make a narrative 
diverting and illuminating." — Kansas City Star, 

i2mo, $1.25 net. Postpaid $1.37 

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THE LIFE. OF 

ALICE FREEMAN PALMER 

By GEORGE HERBERT PALMER 

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million homes and find its way into the hands of every 
college student." — Chicago Standard. 

*' Certain to be one of the notable books of the year. 
... As fascinating as a novel." — Springfield Re- 
publican, 

** To those who knew and loved Mrs. Palmer this book 
will be a friend ; to those who knew her not it will be 
a revelation of a great soul and an inspiration to noble 
living." — The Outlook, 

*' A work of love and sympathy, of personal and intel- 
lectual affection, Professor Palmer writes with an in- 
timacy and knowledge that is rare in biography and 
at the same time with a detachment that permits him 
to view and to describe Mrs. Palmer from far as well 
as from near." — Boston Transcript. 

With portraits and views. Square crown 8vo, $1.50 net. 

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THE PROFESSIONAL AUNT 

By MARY C. E. WEMYSS 

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crossed the water." — Louisville Courier-Journal. 

" The legitimate successor of * Helen's Babies.' " 

Clara Louise Burnham, 

"A classic in the literature of childhood." 

San Francisco Chronicle, 

"Mrs. Wemyss is a formidable rival to E. Nesbit, 
who hitherto has stood practically alone as a charm- 
ingly humorous interpreter of child life." 

Chicago Inter-Ocean, 

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THE BREAKING IN OF A 
YACHTSMAN'S WIFE 



By MARY HEATON VORSE 



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Illustrated by Reginald Birch. i2mo, ;^i.50 



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THE SEVERED MANTLE 



By WILLIAM LINDSEY 



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ing tale of chivalry, but a careful and accurate study 
of a curious phase of social life in Southern mediaeval 
France." — Philadelphia Press, 

" Full of fine feeling and interesting from end to end. 
It achieves just what the author intended, and one 
closes the book feeling that one has breathed the air 
of mediaeval chivalry." — Chicago Record- Herald, 



Fully illustrated in color by Arthur I. Keller 
Square crown 8vo. $1.35 net. Postage 15 cents 



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MIFFLIN 
COMPANY 




BOSTON 

AND 

NEW YORK 



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